LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Between Devotion and Betrayal
Marcos' story is sober and precise. In chapter 14, in two successive verses, 9 and 10, he unites two characters, both closely linked to the life of the Lord Jesus, but with very different fates. Two characters that are two ways of being before the Lord.
The first of them is a woman: the woman who anoints the Lord in the house of Simon the leper. "Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her" (v. 9). Her name is not indicated here. But that's not important; what matters is the gesture.
This woman brings a present to the Lord. She has chosen her best perfume and anoints her head with it. She is full of gratitude, tenderness for the Lord. She has brought the best of her ointments, all her treasure. Isn't a good perfume, for every woman, a fine treasure?
The disciples do not understand the gesture. Her heart is still narrow. They murmur against her. Do not understand. She is ahead of them in assessing the Master. Later, they too will appreciate it that way. She is now the nameless woman who comes before them to love him, to caress him as they could not.
But here, at this moment, according to Marcos' story, another character emerges: this one is nominated. His name has traveled through the ages and latitudes with its weight of ignominy and death: He is Judas Iscariot. "Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to hand him over" (v. 10).
He has been with the Lord for more than three years. He has had the opportunity to see him, like few others, in his weakness and in his glory. He has heard the wealth of Heaven unraveled from his lips. The needs of man have occupied his days and his nights. He has covered all the land of his fathers, inch by inch; he has carried his cargo of life to pour it out on dead hearts.
Now, at the crucial moment, Judas betrays him. He has forgotten everything, he has ignored everything, he has despised everything. He transforms the fraternal embrace into a cunning stab. He is one of the intimates, but he betrays him.
The woman and the man. This woman and this man. Devotion and betrayal. Two extremes that come together in the life of the Servant of God, and in those of all the servants of God.