Maundy Thursday

Read Luke 22:47–53

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I’m following orders, but everything about this is wrong. Roman guards and the high priest’s coterie don’t take orders from commoners. We don’t make arrests without charges. And trials aren’t held in the dead of night. Yet here we stand, hundreds of us interspersed among olive trees, watching Judas kiss his master.

We move in to apprehend. One of his followers, blinded by confusion and rage, pulls a sword. I feel a surge of pain as it slices my ear. With a word, the rabbi calls off his disciple. He touches the side of my head. The pain and the wound vanish.

I can’t make this make sense. This man hears hundreds of soldiers marching up the hill and doesn’t flee? We lay no charges, and he goes willingly? He’s arrested, and spends his last moments of freedom healing his captor? Who is this rabbi?

Jesus, thank you for your willing sacrifice and for your healing grace, even in the face of evil. 

Text by Jodi Craiglow

Video from First United Presbyterian Church of Belleville, IL