Tuesday in Holy Week, April 12. “For you”

Prepare to Listen.  In your silence, offer this prayer: Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.  O LORD, make haste to help me!
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 22:14-23
14When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him.  15He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’  17Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’  19Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’ 20And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.  21But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. 22For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!’  23Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
The cup, “poured out for you,” a seal of the new covenant, Jesus said.  And this is where we could expect the disciples to ask questions, the kind we’d love to ask.  But, without skipping a beat Jesus warns, “the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table.”  Only Luke places this warning at the end of the meal, after the disciples had partaken of Christ’s body and blood.  The meal was sombre—his body broken, his blood poured out; yet also triumphant--for you.  His suffering and death, Jesus’ claimed, would not be a waste, but the seal of the new covenant, the triumph of good over evil.  Then the tone changed, as Jesus warned of a betrayer among them, one who’d already taken what Jesus offered, eaten his body and blood.  Yet he’d deliver Jesus to the enemy, violating the new covenant to which he’d just pledged his allegiance with the other disciples.
 
Jesus knew what Judas planned but made no attempt to stop him.  More remarkable, he showed no anger towards him but spoke with compassion as he warned Judas, “For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!”  He didn’t even name Judas, leaving all the disciples wondering who would do this.  “The blend of celebration and betrayal in the scene at the supper is preparing us for the blend of triumph and tragedy in the crucifixion itself.”[1]  But the love of Jesus remained deep and included Judas, his betrayer.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
What caught your attention in Luke’s account of the Last Supper?
 
Respond to Jesus
Help me, Lord Jesus to live today fully alert to the truth that what you did on the cross was for me and for the world so that I live with the compassion you had even for your betrayer.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Jesus did what he did for you.
[1] Wright, N.T.  Luke for Everyone.  2001, p. 263.