RBWords

     The great fresco painting of the Last Supper by Leonard Da Vinci is supposed to have captured the moment when Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."  While that moment was one filled with drama and tension for the original participants, if we were to say, "Surely it is not I, Lord!" he could reply to us, "If the shoe fits, wear it!"  It is not a comfortable moment, but we are all complicit in some way in Jesus' suffering.  If, as Peter tried, we say that we would never do anything like what Judas did, we will nevertheless do some act of betrayal before that rooster sings!

      However, if we are complicit, we are also the beneficiaries of his suffering on our behalf.  The scene at the table is just the beginning of the process as we follow Jesus' shamefacedly from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane and beyond.  Having said, "Surely it is not I, Lord!" where are we going to run to when the mob shows up at the garden?  What will we say when someone confronts us with, "Surely you are one of this man's disciples?"  All of the little and not so little betrayals of our Christian lives are caught up in this drama and in Jesus' sufferings.  They are a gift that keeps on giving for us.  AMEN