Having his last supper with the disciples a troubled
Jesus announces that one of them is his betrayer. And do you know, if you read that carefully,
every one of them is bewildered.
They have no clue. And their uncertainty suggests that it
could be any one of them. A notable
example is Peter, who refutes that he would ever deny Jesus, but then does so
three times, cock a doodle doo. And speaking of Peter, he's the one that
beckons John, the beloved disciple, reclining right next to Jesus to ask for
the name of the traitor.
Well, and Jesus answers, kind of vaguely, It is the one
to whom I give this piece of bread, he says.
Well, Judas may have gotten the first piece of bread, but he didn't get
the last piece of bread. They all share
the very same communal bread and wine.
And then we will do that very shortly together. And I take great comfort in doing that with
you because I confess that I too have betrayed Jesus selling him out to
suffering and death in this time and place by failing to love as I should.
Here's the question before us in this day and age, isn't
Jesus among us even now as the other?
The last, the lost, the least, the lonely, and the left out. Jesus beckons us to love God and to love one
another. And you know, fortunately we all have a community to do that, but many
others do not. Now paradoxically, I
think we can look to Judas for answers.
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