Resiliency

I was having a conversation with a young woman just yesterday about relationships and how trust is built and sometimes betrayed in those relationships.  She reminded me that sometimes when we are hurt through betrayal, we can often end up staying in that betrayal and not trusting another person for long periods of time.  Or we can pick ourselves back up and trust again.  It’s up to us which one we choose.
    Jesus is betrayed by Judas in today’s gospel.  Jesus says “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”  Jesus does so to Judas and then Judas leaves to do what he must do.  Betrayal has happened.
    Yet, we don’t see Jesus say, “I will never trust another disciple again.”  Or, “That’s it.  I’m done with trusting another human being.”  Isn’t part of being in relationship, allowing ourselves to trust another human being?  Sometimes (maybe even most of the time!) that trust is affirmed!  But we can let that one person who betrays our trust to hurt us deeply, and maybe even rightfully so.  However, is that going to be the end of the story?  Or are we, like Paul Harvey, going to live out the “rest of the story?”  After all, we are resilient creatures, able to spring back.
    Betrayal and having our trust broken can be deeply wounding.  I will most certainly agree with that.  But, as I said in a previous post, I want to see what Jesus sees in that moment.  Instead of seeing one man who has gone and betrayed him, he sees a much larger picture.  He sees 11 other disciples and friends around him to remind him that most of the trust that he has placed in them has not been betrayed.
    My suspicion is that if Jesus had stayed in betrayal mode, the crucifixion might have played out very differently.  Instead of it being sacrificial for us, he might have been doing it only for himself.  “Get me out of here.  These followers are nothing but…(you fill in the blank).”  The whole bunch of apples are rotten.
    In that mindset, we are closed off from experiencing life again.  We feel abandoned.  Alone.  Despised.  Betrayed.  There is no God in that.  It literally ends in death and destruction.
    We are shown in this experience of the Last Supper that even in the midst of betrayal, God is still present.  Life is still present.  Relationship is still present.  Resiliency is alive in him and us!  We might think we want divine retaliation.  However, what we really need is divine resurrection.  We need the One who has not betrayed us to hold on to us, and spring us back to life!  Just like it was done for Jesus.  Instead of caving into destructiveness, might we lean into the arms of the One who gives us hope and new life?  Might we taste the morsel of the Bread of Life once again?  Might we spring back into life after betrayal?