Lent 2025 Day 35: Mon 14 Apr
Luke 22:3-4
3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
Artists have used the halo as a mark of the special nature of the person being portrayed. I’m not a fan of halos – no-one ever went around in real life with a golden arc around their face, and a halo fixes the subject as ever-holy and different from us. See Peter (traditionally old, with receding hair and a whitish beard) with a halo: see a Good Man. The thing about the disciples was that they were ordinary people, like us. Stylised stained glass window images of these characters may not always be the best aids to devotion, especially for the stranger in the building.
Biblical figures get halos. But what happens when Judas is portrayed? One solution is the black halo. Now things are getting silly. See Judas: see a Bad Man.
Now Jesus is sitting in glory, we might think that he is free from betrayal. Remember that the betrayal of Judas, while it may have set the machinery in motion, was not the last one Jesus encountered. Peter chickened out, and over the ages many Christians have not spoken up, sacrificing others to save themselves, or have betrayed the trust placed in them, compounding the sin further through denial or cover up.
How would you respond to a question that singles you out before others on account of your faith? Peter lied, but he also knew about remorse, repentance and forgiveness. It’s these that count, not the extraordinary work he did leading the Church after Pentecost. There are no scales at Heaven’s gate to weigh up your positives and negatives. You are in Christ or you are not.
Does your daily life reveal itself as true to what you profess in Sunday worship? If not, then you may be betraying the trust Christ Jesus has placed in you. I’m sure that we all have said or done things that we have regretted because they dishonour Jesus, and, similarly, things we have failed to do or say. Our mistakes, however, do not have to become chains that hold us back and identify us as failures– Jesus offers forgiveness and restoration to absolutely anyone who comes to him in repentance. He took away our sin on the cross. He takes our weaknesses, our failures, our human nature and deals with them.
How faithful a disciple am I?
Is there anything I am fearful about?
Father God, it is by your power and your Holy Spirit’s enabling that You develop me daily into the likeness of your son, Jesus. Your plan for me is perfect. Create in me the person You long for me to be. Amen.
2:21:30 Der rufet dem Elias (Chor)
61b. Choir I He's calling Elijah!
61c. Evangelist And some of them quickly ran, took a sponge and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed for him to drink. But the others said:
61d. Chorus II Stop! Let's see whether Elijah comes and helps him.
61e. Evangelist But Jesus cried out loudly once again and died.
62. Chorale
When I must depart one day,
do not part from me then,
when I must suffer death,
come to me then!
When the greatest anxiety
will constrict my heart,
then wrest me out of the horror
by the power of your anguish and pain.
63a. Evangelist And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two pieces from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the cliffs were rent, and the graves opened up, and many bodies of saints arose, who were sleeping, and came out of their graves after his resurrection and came into the Holy City and appeared to many people. The Captain, however, and those with him who were guarding Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and what happened then, they were terrified and said:
Ends at 2:24:56
Paul