Reflection on betrayal

 

Jesus. Here he faces a life-ending threat.

Here he accepts the decisions that have to be made, here he sets his face to face the consequences of the decisions he has made.

Jesus, working for the sake of others,

not just for himself or what his donors or backbenchers might think.

He knows the cost of what was coming,

And it all starts with betrayal.

With Judas, one of his closest followers.

Nobody at the table understood why.

Nobody was sure quite what they had just witnessed.

A restless Jesus blurts out the shocking words.

What did he mean?

How could he mean one of those present?

Mesmerised, many eyes watch him dip the bread,

watch his hand stretch out,

watch Judas receive it

to find he has been possessed

by a force beyond himself.

Jesus instructs him to act quickly.

Is he buying food for the celebration?

Giving alms to the poor?

There is no understanding around the table.

Judas walks out into the night.

He would never be back.

He would never live it down.

He went out into the night

to join a sinister dance of shadows

that would wring the light from the moment,

where in dark and dangerous places

deals would be done,

where betrayal and denial would be owned by no one

and yet played by all.

And in the midst of it all

Jesus still loves and lives to a rhythm

that even as it dances so close to death,

is not of the darkness but of the light.

May we hold onto the light, O Jesus.

May we hold on to it tight.

(inspiration from this poem was drawn from Spill the Beans Issue 38 Holy Week)