THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER
They paid him THIRTY silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.
The figure of Judas looms large in Holy Week. Those thirty pieces of silver are lodged in our collective imagination through art, poetry and hymnody.
Stories of betrayal are always uncomfortable. Betrayal can happen in a matter of seconds. We can say or do something that we can never take back. Perhaps Judas stands for all of our moments of betrayal? Perhaps he stands for all the times we have ‘headed out into the night’? Perhaps he stands for all those times we have watched our hope die and made a wrong choice?
In the Orthodox tradition Judas features often in the hymnody of Holy Week:
Servant and deceiver, disciple and betrayer, friend and devil, Judas has been revealed by his deeds.
These pairings are so poignant. Judas and his thirty pieces of silver can function as a mirror for our own hearts. But we can have courage in the God of all mercy whose hands can hold every betrayal and who counts back each piece of silver.
How does the story of Judas speak to you this Lent?
(Matthew 26:14-25, Wednesday, Holy Week)