Posts Tagged ‘Isaiah 50:4-9a’

Isaiah 50:4-9a     John 13:21-32

In his The Gospel of John: A Commentary, scholar Frederick Dale Bruner headlines this day’s gospel reading as “Jesus’ Foot-washing Warning: (with the subtitle) Let Yourselves Beware of Yourselves.”  Or, as Rudolf Bultmann puts it, “The consciousness of belonging to the body of disciples must not seduce any of them into the illusion of security.”[i]  And, I would say that, a false sense of security from harm without is usually paired with such a sense within: a false certainty of our own steadfastness and loyalty, under any conditions.  This passage from John, in the context of Holy Week, will not allow us to dodge a confrontation with the power of evil in humanity.

The gospels do not provide us with a clear explanation for Judas’ act in “handing over” Jesus to the authorities.  And most of the answers we try to extrapolate from the evangelist’s words say a good deal more about us and our need to distance ourselves from the possibility of acting as Judas did. Read More