Holy Week: Spy Wednesday
Written by Josh Broadway
Holy Wednesday— also known as Spy Wednesday— was the day that Judas Iscariot partnered with the Pharisees to betray Jesus. The Pharisees agreed to give Judas for thirty pieces of silver in turn for a time and location to arrest Jesus so that he could be killed.
You see, the Pharisees needed an inside man who could provide a time when Jesus was alone. They were scared to arrest him in public because they feared public outrage or a riot. So instead, they opted for a secret arrest in the middle of the night. This is where Judas comes in.
Luke 22 says this:
Then satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
With that the scene is set. Jesus’ fate is almost sealed. But why did Judas do it?
The answer lies in a story that is paired with Judas’ agreement—the story of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany.
In this story Jesus and the Twelve are reclining after a meal when a woman approaches Jesus with an alabaster jar full of very expensive perfume (it cost about a year’s wages). She then pours the perfume on Jesus’ feet and cleans them with her hair.
The disciples are shocked at this display. In fact Judas says this in John 12:4-5:
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected. ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’”
I can’t really blame Judas for thinking this way. In all honesty, I would have probably thought the same thing at some point during this encounter. However, if we pause for a second and expand on these two moments in scripture we see a theme appear.
We begin to see Judas’ focus.
We see that his focus is on the financial piece of everything. This shouldn’t be shocking because his role in the disciples was the keeper of the money, however, he let his job take focus of his heart. He allowed his focus to shift from who he is serving to what he is doing. No longer did he care about the work that was being done, but instead he cared about how much it costs or how much he could make as a result of what God was doing in front of him.
I believe this is the most important thing we can do in our lives. We have to decide who gets our focus. We have to decide who rules our life. We have to keep our focus on who we are serving more than what we are doing.
When we allow our focus to be on Jesus and what he wants to do in our lives, we will be living the fullest life that God promised. We will be living the life that he intended for us to live.
So on this Spy Wednesday ask yourself, “Where is my focus? Who am I serving?” Is your focus on what you are doing or who you are serving?
