Two Day Turn-Over
What a couple of days of contrast! We start out with Jesus being anointed at a feast and we end with him being spat on and betrayed. I guess I could say “Life’s like that.” But that’s quite a turn around for just a couple of days.
How do you react when life whip saws you that way? I know that I enjoy the foot-washing, but don’t care for the back-beating. I want to know what went wrong and how can I get back to being the one folks want to be seen with… not the one they want to spit on. But Jesus seems to handle them both in stride. What’s his secret?
Maybe it’s because he knows what’s coming.
Maybe it’s because he knows the one who will see him through.
Maybe it’s because he knows he’s only worth 30 silver pieces.
Here’s some Bible trivia: Why did Judas get paid thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus? It was the price God told the Jews to pay if they hurt somebody’s slave:
If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned. (Exodus 21:32)
Interesting: Jesus is treated like Judas’s slave. They paid Judas just as though they had accidentally backed their ox cart over a slave boy he had owned. Could it be that this was the key to Jesus handling his fate so calmly. He knew that he had “made himself nothing” as Paul would later write, “Taking on the very nature of a servant.”
When we see ourselves as the servants of God and the servants of our neighbors, we stop expecting perfume and foot-washing. We know we are destined for cleaning up aisle three and getting kicked while we do. We know that we will have some close friends turn their back on us and others run away. So we don’t panic or moan when it happens.
If you follow the money in this chapter it leads from the prostitutes perfume to Judas greedy hands and trips him up badly.
If you follow the Savior in this chapter he goes from being the hero to the zero… and keeps walking straight ahead toward what God had NEXT for him the whole time.
I know who I want to follow this week… God help me to do so!
Jeff Walling
February 25
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I wonder how many lost their faith during those last few days when Jesus truly was treated like a servant and not the annoited one. Sweet vindication was in play soon after, but I guess that was the point, bring him down as low as possible so the ascent was that much greater to prove a point.
ReplyDeleteWe studied this very same passage this past week in our Tuesday night Bible study, Breaking Free. As we looked particularly at Judas' betrayal of Jesus, we were so struck by the idea that Jesus was betrayed so that He can offer us the ultimate comfort when we are betrayed by those we love. Just as He was tempted in every way that we are, He also suffered in every way that we ever will. How comforting to know that when I take my own losses and betrayals to Jesus, He knows exactly how I feel and can offer His loving support and comfort.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Jeff! God help me look at life through the eyes of a servant!
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