Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Matthew 26:17-25

Matthew 26:17-25 
English Standard Version 

  How well do you know yourself?  What are the best things you are capable of?  What might be the worst thing you could do?  
  It's an impossible question -- we surprise ourselves all the time, both in the good and bad.  I suspect that many people have done things impossibly worse than they ever thought they might do, but people also constantly surprise themselves by doing wonderful things they didn't think they could do.
  Here, the humanity of the disciples is on full display.  They've spent three years with Jesus, walking and talking and learning with him, and yet during the Last Supper, they aren't certain as to whether or not they are the ones who will betray him.  They don't deny him here -- they're asking if they are the ones who will do it.  They aren't sure.
  There's something so human about this, so real.  Verses like this help me believe the Gospels report what really happened, because if you were going to make it up, you'd never include this verse.  You'd have Judas as the evil one and the disciples are heroes, certain of their own virtue.  But the disciples recognize that they can fall short and do evil.  They see it in themselves, which is perhaps why they cling so closely to Jesus -- just as they recognize their own faults, they see in Jesus the only solution to the brokenness of humanity.  
  In Jesus there is hope, no matter how broken we may be.  There exists a way forward in Christ, no matter what.

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