When I was a child and got bored in church (not that I would ever bore anyone, young or old) there wasn’t much by way of art to distract me. There was one stained glass window of Jesus at the front and another of the story of the Good Samaritan… so I frequently resorted to counting bricks in the front wall of the church… No sermon was ever long enough to allow me to complete the count…
The early 12th-century church of St Martin in Zillis in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden doesn’t have much on the walls or windows for bored members of the congregation either… But if anyone in the congregation were to raise their eyes to heaven in despair at the long sermon they would find something that would really make them think…
153 painted square wooden panels of around 90 cm each placed in 17 rows of 9 panels installed around 1110 and which is one of only 3 similar examples left in the world. The 48 paintings framing the ceiling are mostly painted with mythical figures largely symbolizing evil. In the four corners are angels symbolizing the four wind directions, while the inner 105 panels are of biblical scenes and the life story of Martin of Tours. Scenes include ancestors of Christ such as kings David and Solomon, the birth of Christ, a whole series on the journey of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, some deeds and the Passion of Christ. The story stops rather abruptly with the crown of thorns and fails to illustrate the crucifixion, and more importantly, the resurrection. The image I posted today as the #LentArt post is one of those panels illustrating an episode towards the end of Jesus’ life in the Gospel reading for today:
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
John 13: 21-32
Chronologically the lectionary is slightly out of sync at this point. This passage comes after the one we will look at tomorrow evening: Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. I suppose it is because the compilers of the lectionary are wary of leaving any of the elements of John’s account of what happened in that upper room on the night before Jesus died. John himself has already omitted the account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, but he doesn’t need to tell us because Mark, Matthew, Luke and indeed before that, Paul in his First letter to the Corinthians, already have. But the implications of this section and the brief reference to Judas tomorrow evening, is that for most of the evening Judas was still in the midst of the group. For some reason Jesus already new what Judas was going to do, yet we see tomorrow that Jesus still stooped and knowingly washed the feet of the one who had already agreed to betray him… And here he shares the bread that represents his broken body with him… And in this image the intimacy of that act is clear… As well as the implications.
The text tells us that “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, whom most take to be the Gospel’s author, John’s slightly self-congratulatory description of himself (or perhaps his followers “bigging him up”), was reclining next to Jesus… In this image he looks like he is slumped over the table due to too much wine! But the text says that at the prompting of Simon Peter he has asked Jesus which one is it who will betray him… and Jesus says:
“It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”
And here he not only gives it to Judas, he places it on his tongue, the fashion that many to this day administer communion.
And here this act of communion in the wake of the institution of communion is actually offered to one who is planning to break communion with Christ in the most profound way possible. Yet Jesus still communes with him…
Who are we prepared to commune with? Who are we happy to invite to the table of our lives? Or are we quite comfortable being socially distant to some people because of what they might do to or say about us and ours? Or what they have said or done in the past?
Or perhaps in the light of Jesus’ willingness to sit and share with those who would not only betray but also deny and simply desert him, maybe we should think about being more open with the table of our lives?
Or is that a recipe for disaster? Jesus’ recipe for disaster…
PRAYER (Derived from Cranmer’s Prayer of Humble Access)
We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy.
Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,
not only to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood,
that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us,
but also to treat others with the mercy
which you have shown to us.
To once again turn your word into flesh and blood
Offered for the love of the world,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN
Selah
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