With the help of a note in my study Bible, I noticed something today I'd never seen before. I was reading in Mark 14 about the woman who broke an expensive bottle of perfume and anointed Jesus. The disciples complained about the wasted resource--the perfume was worth a year's wages--but Jesus commended the woman for her gesture. "She has anointed my body for burial ahead of time," he said. "This woman's deed will be talked about in her memory."
What I'd never noticed before was the transition to the next sentence. "THEN Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them." I guess I never noticed the possible connection between these two events. Was Jesus' reaction to the woman the thing that pushed Judas over the edge? He probably had an idea...a dream...of how following Jesus would play out. As "keeper of the money bag" I wonder if his dreams included visions of wealth. But as he watched Jesus approve of a year's wages being "wasted," Judas knew the gig was up. His hopes were not going to be realized. And he couldn't deal with the loss of his expectations. There would be no power. No money. Seemingly no victory. He became disillusioned. He snapped. And so he tried to salvage something from the disaster. He lost faith in Jesus and grasped for some security in silver.
How tragic. It had to break Jesus' heart. And the saddest part is so often we are prone to the Judas path. We make up rules for the game--if we hold up our end of the bargain (an end we define) then he has to hold up his (our expectation). We are more attached to the expectation than to him. And when it doesn't play out the way we expected? We panic and go for the coins.
May we never make a mistake on Friday that keeps us from living the Sunday.
He can be trusted. Just keep following him.
Great observation! I love when those little
nuggets are discovered and bring the story to light in a new way. I'm going to go read it now!
Posted by: Laurie | May 11, 2007 at 09:16 PM