lenten blog | April 16, 2025

HOLY WEDNESDAY

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for Holy Wednesday, April 16th:  Psalm 70; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 12:1-3; and John 13:21-32.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Sometimes the biblical stories leave me scratching my head.  If they weren’t surrounded by their biblical aura, I think we would be more honest in admitting that sometimes there are obvious inconsistencies.  It’s been a long, long time since I watched the first Indiana Jones movie, and I may have this wrong.  However, I remember being confused about a plot line.  There was some Nazi submarine, I believe, and Indiana Jones caught a ride on it as an unsuspecting traveler.  I remember wondering how he survived all the time while the submarine was submerged.  I may have remembered this completely incorrectly, let me know if I did, but I didn’t feel any guilt about recognizing the inconsistency.  People of faith can feel differently about the exact same thing when it comes to the Bible, but the Bible’s inspiration isn’t in the literal, unassailable factual nature of each word and episode.  It’s in the overarching biblical message, in the interpretation of the words to get to the still-speaking Word.

In today’s Gospel, for example, Jesus reveals that one among them will betray Him.  For later, let’s keep in mind that all the disciples look at one another uncertain as to whom it could be.  Then Peter asks the Beloved Disciple to ask Jesus for particulars, and Jesus does just that.  Judas is undeniably outed.  At this point, the story becomes confusing.  Judas leaves the table and we’re told, “Now no one at the table knew why [Jesus] said this to [Judas]. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor.”  There is confusion, then clarity, and then confusion inexplicably returns.  This is an inconsistency in the story.

To read the Bible as a person of faith is not to focus on such discrepancies any more than it is to act as if they are not there.  Even if there were the problem I mentioned above about Indiana Jones, that example of inconsistency does not define the entertainment value of the entire movie.  So what else might be going on here when we don’t need to shy away from our confusion or let it dominate our reading? 

Let’s go back to the held-thought that after Jesus utters those fateful words that one of His closest followers, one of His disciples, will betray Him, we read, “The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking.”  There is no indication of feigned incredulity.  Judas is not separated out from the others.  We are expected to hear that everyone at table is taken aback, that they all wonder what other disciple is the betrayer.  No one, read Judas here, admits that he would act as the betrayer. 

This all changes when according to the mythical language of 2,000 years ago “Satan entered into [Judas].”  If some supernatural fallen angel is allowed to overpower a mere natural Judas, then there is no moral compunction here.  Judas is not responsible for what he will do; Satan is.  In the 1970’s terrorists kidnapped Patty Hearst and during those 19 months Ms. Hearst became allied with her captors in an example of brainwashing and Stockholm Syndrome.  Her sentence was eventually commuted and she was even pardoned for her role as an accomplice to her captors.  It was determined that they were responsible for her actions, not Patty Hearst.  This is why I do not favour the scapegoat of Satan.  Judas is responsible for his actions.

And this is where it gets interesting when the still-speaking Word of God invites us to imagine and dialogue with the text about what it was that turned Judas’ ambivalence into action.  The Gnostic Gospel of Judas takes this text in a wholly different direction and presents Judas as the hero in this tale.  Judas was Jesus’ confidante.  I don’t see this as plausible, but neither is it warranted to make Judas into a caricature of pure, calculating evil.  When Jesus outed Judas, did He out Judas to himself?  When Jesus saw something in Judas that Judas had not yet admitted, was that the tipping point for Judas? 

Does Jesus confront us with ourselves, even our hidden selves that we would rather not engage?  Dialoguing with the text in an open and honest fashion moves us away from the black and white of religious extremism and all the hatred and harm it conceives.  Zealots will point out and attack the sins of others without a tinge of self-examination or conscience.  Maybe Jesus offers another lesson.  Jesus knew what Judas would do, but I see Jesus as hoping against hope that Judas will reconsider.  I find Jesus’ hope not as naïve, but idealistic in the best sense of the word.  And I find in Jesus’ hope the source of hopefulness.

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday and Holy Week enters its holiest days.  I invite you to our worship at 7:00pm at the Hatfield Church.  Maybe this extra time with Christ will open a dialogue of faith, and will let us peer more deeply into ourselves, even our hidden selves, and into our relationship with Jesus.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.