NewCreation

Homily for Tuesday of Holy Week, Years ABC (Catholic); Wednesday of Holy Week, Years ABC (RCL)

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this, the homily, for a couple of days in Holy Week. Why do I say that? Because today's Gospel is used on Holy Tuesday in the Catholic Liturgy and on Holy Wednesday in the RCL, the liturgy shared by many non-Catholic groups. Why is that? Well, the Catholic liturgy has traditionally on the Wednesday had Matthew's account of Judas's betrayal. And so always on the Catholic liturgy, it's by Wednesday, it's Judas's betrayal in Matthew's version, because it simply explains it more. Here we have something slightly different, because we have much more in this Tuesday version — in the Catholic version on Tuesday and the Reformed version on Wednesday. We have something much more profound to do with Jesus's handing over of himself. And it's in that light that I'd like to explore this with you, because it's one of the things that John brings out very, very clearly, though our translations often don't help, is how much Jesus is doing something freely, laying his life down, picking it up again. That this is not in any way an accident or a quirk. And of course the moment that's true, the whole question of what role — the role of, quote unquote, the traitor — is becomes, well, very different and rather difficult for us to put into normal language. Let me see if I can explain what I mean. So here we are: Jesus has just finished the foot washing in John's Gospel, which of course will be transferred to Thursday when we will celebrate it liturgically. So Jesus has just undergone the foot washing, just done all that in imitation of Mary who'd washed his feet, and has prophesied that "the one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." So this is a quote from Psalm 40-something — I'll put it in the text. And of course Jesus has put himself in the position of people below their feet while he's washing them, so that they can lift their feet against him. So it's been very physical. And now part two of the same ritual is the sharing of the meat, the sharing of the portion. So after saying this, Jesus was troubled in spirit. This is the second time we hear of Jesus being troubled in spirit. It was the same troubling of the great high priest the night before the atonement, and he was troubled in spirit — if you remember, in the passage when he understood that the time had come and just before the voice spoke from heaven. This is part of the high priestly troubling himself before the atonement. So he declared, "Very truly I tell you, one of you will" — and here in the translation I have, the NRSV, it says "will betray me," but I think it's very important that we stick with the literal meaning: "will hand me over" — because "will hand me over" can have relatively benign meaning and can as well mean "betray." And remember that all of those meanings are present. Jesus is handing himself over and he's about to enact that very deliberately and physically. And he's putting himself in the position of being handed over because his being handed over is absolutely necessary for the atonement to be completed. So the great high priest is allowing himself to be led to performing the sacrifice. Again, it's difficult for us to imagine how much freedom and deliberately signed freedom is going on here. "So I tell you, one of you will hand me over." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. Well, I would suggest that it was not only of whom he was speaking but of what exactly he was speaking. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So it's interesting that St Peter, the important one, and as we know the somewhat self-important one, wants to know why. Well, surely the handing over is rather important and perhaps shouldn't he be involved in it? So he wants to know who's doing this important task. So Peter motions to the beloved disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was reclining next to Jesus, and motions to him to say: find out who this is. So while reclining next to Jesus he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It's the one to whom I give this sop when I have dipped it in the dish." Now it's interesting that in the translation we have "this piece of bread." But John deliberately doesn't use the word "bread." I suspect because he's very keen that the discussion of the bread which he'd had in chapter 6 concerning the bread from heaven is not confused with a Passover meal and that sort of bread. A sop would have been a chunk of bread that you dipped in and picked up some meat with, or picked up something with, in the food. This is very much described in ordinary meal terms. But what is described is very extraordinary. So Jesus said, "It's the one to whom I give this sop when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the sop he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. Now what's Jesus doing? He's giving himself; he's handing himself over to the person whom he knows already has an intention. "After he" — that's Judas son of Simon Iscariot — "receives the sop, Satan enters into him." And meta can mean either "after" or "with": "with the piece of bread, Satan entered into him." It could be "after" or "with." In other words, Jesus is giving himself over to his hander-over. He's handing himself over to his hander-over, aware that this handing over is going to lead to his death. It says then Satan entered into him. Who is Satan in this narrative? Well, Satan is the prince of this world and functions by lying and by killing. He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. So what's going to happen? This person is going to find himself engaged in being run by the power of this world, in which he will calumniate and kill. And then Jesus makes an order to him: "Do quickly what you're going to do." But please notice he gives himself away and then commands him to do it. In other words, all of this is deliberate. Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. In other words, they didn't understand the solemnity of Jesus giving himself away into the hands of the one who was going to give him away — furthermore, ordering him to do something, and quickly. That was actually really terrible, because what Judas was about to do was to break a very, very solemn piece of Leviticus: "You shall not go around as a slanderer or a calumniator, or the sort of person who betrays, cheats on someone among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord." That is, it's those Levitical lines that describe what Judas is about to do. So you have the Lord specifically telling him to do quickly what he's going to do, even though that is something appalling according to Leviticus. The people at the table don't understand what he's done, because obviously they don't know as Jesus does what is in Judas's heart. So some thought that because Judas has the common purse, Jesus was telling him to buy what we need for the festival, or that he should give something to the poor. And again, with John there's always an irony in this, because Jesus was in fact entrusting to Judas the possibility of fulfilling the festival forever — because it was the Son who was going to replace, it was the beloved Son who was going to replace the need for firstborn sons to be redeemed, and therefore bring to an end the need for Passover lambs forever, and that it was going to be the ultimate festival for the poor. So they misunderstand what Jesus is commanding him to do, and they think that he's just been asked to conduct a small business matter to do with their common funds. So it then says: after receiving the sop, he immediately went out. In other words, it was handed to him and he immediately took it away. And it was night. So this is the moment of darkness. This is the moment when all these meanings are capable of being lost, where any good intention is capable of being turned upside down, where it is not clear what is happening. He went out, and it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him." What does that mean? In what does the glory consist? In being handed over. And God has been glorified in him. What does God look like in our midst? As one who is handed over to death voluntarily, out of love for us. That is the fullness of God's glory. And the extraordinary thing about this, of course, is that all our discussion of the Eucharist — and John very carefully avoids discussing details of the Eucharist in the way that the synoptics do, because he's explained it: he's talked about the wine through the Melchizedek fulfillment with the Cana at Galilee, and the bread in chapter 6, and then we're talking about the vine — but here he's talking about the celebrating of the giving himself away in betrayal. Because the truth of the matter is that what he has inaugurated here is the public celebration of a betrayal, of a handing over, with the whole question being: "I'm giving myself away to you. You will really become me, because it is really me that I'm giving away. Take it and run. Who are you going to make me?" And of course all the other people who were in that room that night also betrayed him. Peter famously. Later that night the beloved disciple melted away into the priestly household, managed to get information because he was of priestly origin, and the others just disappeared. The only people who could be found to help bury Jesus were, later, Joseph of Arimathea and friends. So all of them, to a different degree, did what Judas did. Judas does it, if you like, paradigmatically, and everyone else does it to different degrees. But John emphasizes, much more than the others, that there's always the element of betrayal present in the others — that what Jesus was celebrating was his handing over, presuming betrayal, and that all those of us who are invited to partake in it are presumed betrayers who are going to learn how to hand over something entirely different. So this is why Jesus says: "If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once." So now that it's night, now… that the handing over is at work, now the full shape of God's glory, what God looks like amongst us, is going to be revealed. "Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me. And as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I'm going you cannot come." In other words, he knows he's going to have to go through this alone. He knows that he will be deserted and abandoned by everybody, and of course later he makes the reference to the prophet Zechariah, which confirms exactly that. Our Gospel today then jumps the new commandment, which we're given later, and follows on immediately with Simon Peter saying to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I'm going you cannot follow me now." In other words, you don't yet know how to hand yourself over in imitation of me, who have handed myself over. Peter says to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." In other words, the brash, the impetuous, the person who thinks that all this can be done in a moment rather than a whole life of giving yourself away — he doesn't understand that that kind of brashness will immediately fail, and of course famously within a very short time he does fail. Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the cock crows you will have denied me three times." So this extraordinary public pre-enactment of betrayal, with giving away his body. The notion of gnawing on a body curiously was an idiom to refer to calumniating them, slandering them, betraying them in the sense of speaking evil about them, bearing false witness against them. This is part of the extraordinary picture which John gives, so as to remind us, if you like, of the fullness of the drama of the Eucharist, which we so quickly and easily turn into a repetitive liturgical feast without thinking of the drama of the one who is giving himself away to us. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.