Today is called Spy Wednesday. I just learned this. It is the day where holy week turns dark.
From Wikipedia:
"The New Testament account of Holy Week, after Palm Sunday, the Sanhedrin gathered and plotted to kill Jesus before the feast of Pesach. On the Wednesday before his death, Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper. As he sat at the supper table with his disciples, a woman named Mary anointed Jesus' head and feet with a costly oil of spikenard. The disciples were indignant, asking why the oil was not instead sold and the money given to the poor. But Judas Iscariot wanted to keep the money for himself. Then Judas went to the Sanhedrin and offered to deliver Jesus to them in exchange for money. From this moment on, Judas sought an opportunity to betray Jesus."
Spy Wednesday remembers Judas and the betrayal.
The old testament reading for today gets me:
"I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame."
"...I have set my face like flint... "
Badass.
The new testament verse:
"...and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame..."
Beyond the suffering and disgrace, Jesus saw Joy and so he set his face like a flint and soldiered on.
His friends threw him under the bus,
He soldiered on.
They dragged him into court and trashed his name.
He soldiered on.
They found him guilty of a crime he didn't commit and gave him a death sentence.
He soldiered on.
They nailed him to a tree and as he hung, suffering, ridiculed by everyone around him.
He forgave...
And then he let go.
Today is the day that Jesus said game on. He set his face to flint and he followed the race set out for him.
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