I find the events of Wednesday of Holy Week to be humbling. Basically they reveal how much the disciples, Jesus’ closest and best students, still struggled to integrate his teachings into their lives. They were his followers, they were supposed to listen to and obey him, and yet they still messed things up.
This is the day that one of Jesus disciples got fed up with how Jesus was doing his thing and decided to be a catalyst for more extreme action by betraying Jesus. Perhaps Judas the Iscariot – one of the Sicarii or dagger-man, a splinter Jewish extremist group that promoted violence and murder as a means of overthrowing the Romans – was fed up with Jesus’ creative nonviolence. His political views eschewed how he listened to and obeyed his teacher. He wanted a swift rebellion, and perhaps thought the only way to spark such action was to betray the very man he claimed to follow.
This is also the day when a woman broke her treasured alabaster jar of perfume over Jesus’ feet. The disciples, conditioned to Jesus’ teachings about serving the poor, were offended at her extravagance, asserting that the perfume could have been sold for money to give to the poor. Jesus though admonishes the disciples and called her act beautiful. The disciples had become so wrapped up in the literal interpretation of his words that they missed the spirit of love and devotion that his teachings were based on.
So it humbles me to realize that even Jesus’ closest followers didn’t always get the listen to and obey Jesus thing right. How could I be so arrogant to assume that I even barely have it figured out? But it is also comforting. Jesus still loved his disciples and stuck with them – even though they messed up over and over again. I know I let my biases, my cultural proclivities, cloud how I hear and follow the words of Jesus. But I also know that Jesus loves me anyway, and that even my imperfect attempts to listen to and obey him are sufficient.
This week I will be cross-posting the reflections I wrote for Journey’s IFC’s blog relating the events of Holy Week to our church’s value statements. Some of these have appeared in different forms here at onehandclapping in the past. Image – “Washing Jesus’ Feet – India”