'May we be offended'

Wednesday April 16 2025

A reflection for Wednesday of Holy Week, by the Rev Roddy Hamilton

Luke 22:1-6

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, also called Passover, drew near. The high priests and religion scholars were looking for a way to do away with Jesus but, fearful of the people, they were also looking for a way to cover their tracks.

That’s when Satan entered Judas, the one called Iscariot. He was one of the Twelve. Leaving the others, he conferred with the high priests and the Temple guards about how he might betray Jesus to them. They couldn’t believe their good luck and agreed to pay him well. He gave them his word and started looking for a way to betray Jesus, but out of sight of the crowd.

Reflection

The dream you dream in the dark,
Of a warrior messiah

Holds nothing but faint traces
Of a bygone hope:

Some weak, zealot-like, longing
You cannot find in the messiah you have among you.

And so you force his hand;
Back him into a corner,

His only escape to call on the angel armies
To charge down on their regime-change anger.

But what if you’ve got it wrong?
What if you’ve miscalculated?

What if the road to heaven
Goes round another way,

And you’ve gone and backed him into an alley
From which there is no escape?

What if this road you are on
Turns out to be the wrong one?

Prayer

Did you see that, heaven?
Did you see what he did?
Did you feel the punch, the slap across your face,
The moment he betrayed you?

May we be offended.
May we feel your pain.

And may we recognise every time
The words and acts and silences we have used
That betray that which is right,
And just,
And loving;
That betray the son of heaven,
For our own desires and wants.

May we be offended.

And ask your forgiveness.

Amen

The Rev Roddy Hamilton is minister of New Kilpatrick Parish Church, Bearsden

Holy Week Reflections
Palm Sunday: Silence is not a gift the stones will give
Monday: It is a long way to heaven from here
Tuesday: Between the grief and the hope