Joyful Sadness
Is today all about betrayal?
Imagine inviting your closest friends to a dinner. Not just any dinner, mind you, but a very special occasion, a time when family usually gathers together to be close and share the joys of life.
Perhaps your family and the family members of all you invited are there as well, and all is going smoothly, with everyone enjoying themselves.
Tonight, we remember such a meal in our Maundy Thursday service. We will also reenact a very touching and unexpected washing of the feet of the disciples, something a dinner host would never do for his guests, considering it being the job of a slave.
But something else will change the whole mood of the evening. Someone will be called out.
When it was evening, he came with the twelve. And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, "Surely, not I?" - Mark 14:17-19
I can't imagine doing this to someone, calling them out in front of family and friends. It is something I have only seen happen when someone is so hurt that he can't keep the pain in.
How could you do this to me?
The evening had to turn silent and cold at that point, when Jesus said he knew. The disciples were so confused and upset, each questioned whether he would be be the one.
Wouldn't you know?
We know, and it colors the entire celebration. It becomes a solemn occasion rather than a joyous one.
Once again, during this Holy Week, the church has given us a mix of joy and pain hitting us with a panoply of emotions when we just want to come together to understand, to get close to Jesus in the final hours before his death.
What is the message we should take away form this joyful sadness?
Should we see ourselves as unworthy sinners who are capable of betrayal even of someone we love? Is that why we come together, to beat ourselves up and feel worthless?
I don't think so. I believe the message is one of hope. Yes, we are all capable of dispensing all sorts of harm on each other. We can easily turn a joyful celebration into one filled with pain, but that doesn't shut us out of God's love. No matter what we are capable of doing, and no matter what we do, we are still loved.
That is the joy that comes in the morning, the truth behind the pain and the blessing I believe we should recall tonight and every night as we gather together with those we love.
It is easy to be cruel and dispense pain. It is much harder to love.
So, this day is not about betrayal. It is about forgiveness and love.
Are we up to the challenge?
More to come...