Reflection for April 1, 2015: Wednesday of Holy Week.

Abstract

I gave my back to those who beat me,|my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;|My face I did not shield|from buffets and spitting.|For your sake I bear insult,|and shame covers my face.|I have become an outcast to my brothers,|a stranger to my mother's sons,|because zeal for your house consumes me,|and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.|Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,|I looked for sympathy, but there was none;|for consolers, not one could I find.|Rather they put gall in my food,|and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.|One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,|"What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"|They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.|When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said,|"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."|Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another,|"Surely it is not I, Lord?"|He said in reply,|"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.|The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,|but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.|It would be better for that man if he had never been born."|Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,|"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"|He answered, "You have said so."|I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.|He is near who upholds my right….|See, the Lord God is my help;|who will prove me wrong?|The Lord God is my help,|therefore I am not disgraced;|I will praise the name of God in song,|and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:|"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;|you who seek God, may your hearts revive!|For the Lord hears the poor,|and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."