Maundy Thursday: Betrayal

It all started tonight.

Yes, I recognize the incongruency in that statement, the past tense "started" with future reference "tonight." But that's what it means to enter into the story of the Bible. In some sense, as the writers of Battlestar Galactice said, "All this has happened before; all this will happen again."

I don't mean that Christ's work on the cross isn't finished. I don't mean that he needs to be crucified again. I mean that as a believer, I enter this story again and again. It's a part of me. It defines me, this story.

This morning, my husband and I listened to the Maundy Thursday chapters of the story, the part where Jesus breaks bread with his disciples one last time before his death, where he agonizes on the mount alone, pleading with the Father to do this another way, where one disciple betrays him with a kiss and another disciple betrays him three times before the rooster crowed.

Then Luke said, "The next morning," and we stopped the CD. We stopped it at betrayal and beatings and mocking.

All of this has happened before; all of this will happen again. I betray him. I mock him. I spit in his face.

Image via Wikipedia

There's an art piece called Piss Christ, a plastic crucifix emerged in a cup of urine. It received some attention, particularly negative attention from the evangelical church. But the truth is, this cup of urine pictures what I do to Christ every day when I fail him. It pictures Judas' betrayal, Peter's betrayal, and my betrayal.

Tonight begins the crisis, and Jesus will be alone. Stripped of clothes, dignity, and friends. Soon, he will be stripped of the very presence of the Father.