Holy Week | Wednesday
The Wednesday of Holy Week was a day of betrayal of the King.
1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
Luke 22: 1-6 (ESV)
Wednesday of Holy Week was a day of treachery by one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers. And ever since that day, the very name “Judas” has become a synonym for personal betrayal.
Judas, you will remember, was hand-chosen by our Lord to be among his most privileged disciples: he was one of the twelve. This means that Judas heard first-hand the teaching of Jesus that had put so many in awe of him, and he saw first-hand the miracles of Jesus that had persuaded so many that he was the Messiah. Likewise, Judas was among those commissioned by Jesus to preach the good news of the coming of the kingdom, and to bring others to know the Savior. He was even among those given power by Jesus to heal the sick and to cast out demons (Mark 6:7ff): signs that the one who sent them was from God.
Furthermore, it would appear that Judas even had a special place of honor and trust among the twelve disciples. He was the “treasurer” of that band of brothers, trusted enough to be given responsibility for their shared funds (John 13:29). And in John’s account of that last supper Jesus has with his disciples one night later, we find Judas seated in a place of honor, beside our Lord, with John himself on the other side of our Lord. To the rest of the disciples, apparently Judas was one of the least likely members of their company to break trust with them and their Lord.
Yet in our text here we see that it is Judas’ own initiative to turn against his master, and to offer aid to his enemies. He knows that the authorities are seeking to take our Lord’s life, but he also knows that they are afraid of the crowds, and want to do it out of their view. So it is his idea to offer to them guidance concerning when and where the move against Jesus can be made in secret.
What makes sense of this? What has gone so terribly wrong in the soul of Judas? There is more than one influence on his heart indicated in the gospel accounts. Luke’s text here tells us that the devil was an influence in a terrifying way. We’re told elsewhere that Judas was influenced by a love of money (John 12:6). But I would suggest that there was something else that had taken place over time in Judas’ heart that made him vulnerable to these other influences. Judas had grown disillusioned with Jesus: indeed, even embarrassed by him.
In Matthew’s gospel, the chapter that records Judas’ betrayal begins this way:
“When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples. “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (26:1-2)
Though all the disciples heard this grim prediction of Jesus, there is a certain sense in which Judas seems to have most taken it to heart: but not for good. Judas had other visions of what being among the Messiah’s elite supporters would entail, and these visions did not include sharing in the public humiliation and death of their leader. Judas was like many Jews who expected the Messiah to defeat his enemies by taking their lives, not by giving his own! And as he sees the Lord’s increasing alienation from the Jewish authorities, and even his popularity waning, and especially as Jesus begins to predict his own shameful death, Judas realizes that this is not what he signed up for. He wanted to be on a winning team, and there would be no victory in a crucified Messiah, would there?
So, by Wednesday of Holy Week, Jesus had ceased to be an object of devotion for Judas, and has become instead a source of disgust. He is now ashamed of Jesus, and embarrassed by his own past allegiance to him.
For Discussion and Meditation:
If the Tuesday of Holy Week serves as a mirror to the world of its own insane opposition to Jesus, perhaps the Wednesday of Holy Week is a mirror to the Church of the many Christians in our day who are more or less embarrassed by Jesus.
This would apply to theologically liberal Christians who long ago gave up the attempt to defend the Scriptures - and even Jesus’ teaching on subjects like hell - as intellectually respectable. Their embarrassment with Jesus leads them to subvert everything he did and taught, while professing a kind of devotion to him.
But this would also apply to all of us in those moments when the message of Christianity, and our identity as Christians, exposes us to the ridicule of others and the perception of being “losers.” Those with sensitivity to such scorn, and with ambitions for what the world considers respectability, could come to the same crisis moment as Judas. Indeed, many one-time followers of Christ have in fact become disillusioned with Jesus, and followed the path of Judas to apostasy.
This is what makes the New Testament’s celebration of the “foolishness of the cross” so much more bracing - and meaningful. When the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” there in the backdrop of that statement is Judas, who did in fact become ashamed of his Lord. As dreadful a spectacle as Judas is in his betrayal of Christ, his fall can point us to the posture of shamelessness that all Christ’s disciples are called to. With the tragedy of Judas in mind, we can sing with abandon the words of that hymn:
I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, or to defend his cause,
Maintain the honor of his Word, the glory of his cross.
