It is Wednesday, welcome to Day 3 of Holy Week Tears
If you are journeying with us this week, you will know that today is Day 3 of our Holy Week Tears reflections and that we are creating a visual focal point as we move through this Holy Week. Take your tear drop shape and place it next to Monday’s Palm Cross and Tuesday’s Bread and on it place some Silver Coins.
A quiet thought:
As we sit quietly and look at our silver coins we think of their value, their worth, their usefulness and we are thankful for them and for all else they give to us and mean to us.
The coins are symbols of the 30 Silver Coins that Judas was given for betraying Jesus, see Luke 22:47-53. Likely enough Judas would, last Sunday, have joined the support and shouts of Hosanna as Jesus entered Jerusalem. Here he is betraying his so called friend for 30 silver coins. What a change of allegiance…and all for money? We know all too well what happened to Jesus, but much less is written about what happened to Judas, but there are a few words of his journey, look at Matthew 27:3-10 and Acts 1:18-19. Judas, who betrayed Jesus for money, seems to have had a change of heart and repented for his sin, but he had lied and in so doing betrayed his friend.
How easy it is to have a change of heart for the wrong reason. How easy it is to skew the truth or tell a lie. How easy to be blind to what the bigger picture really is. We are all guilty of that to some degree.
Jesus in the Olive Grove (StF 267)
Hillsong ‘Mighty to save’
Rend Collective ‘Second chance’
A quiet thought:
Let us think again of our silver coins and link in our minds how Judas used his coins. Maybe in the coming months, after all the changes during this last year, our coins will take on a different value, a different worth, a different meaning.
A closing prayer:
Lord God, you know us through and through, you know our failings, our faults, our fears, our frailty.
You know our hopes, our dreams, our desires, our wishes.
You know the heartache of our present hibernation, isolation, home centred existence.
We recall the stories of Holy Week, we see the images they create
We imagine some of the pain of Jesus, the anguish of the disciples, the fear of the authorities, the uncertainty of friendship, the reality of desertion, betrayal and even denial.
The cost of commitment and friendship, or care and support is often greater than we had imagined it would be.
The cost of giving and receiving sometimes stretches us physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Lord God, you know us through and through, accept us as we are, work with us as we are, befriend us again and again so that we feel forever enfolded in your care.
Amen
