24 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:7
The third Song of the Servant is the song of a disciple. “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens, wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” Before the Servant speaks, he listens; every morning he lets God open his ear. Because he listens, he does not turn back when suffering comes: “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” His strength is not hardness but trust: “The Lord GOD helps me… therefore I have set my face like flint.” We heard this same reading on Palm Sunday; today it prepares us for the night of Thursday and the day of Friday, when Jesus will be struck, mocked and spat upon, and will not hide his face. The Psalm is the cry of the righteous sufferer whom even his own family treats as a stranger: “It is zeal for your house that has consumed me… for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” The Gospels saw this psalm fulfilled on Calvary (John 2:17; 19:28–29).
The Gospel tells the bargain. Judas goes to the chief priests and asks: “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They pay him thirty pieces of silver. That was the price of a slave in the Law (Exodus 21:32), and the “lordly price” at which the shepherd of Zechariah was valued (Zechariah 11:12–13). From this bargain the day takes its old name in English, Spy Wednesday. Then the scene moves to preparation: “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Jesus is not a victim caught by surprise. He says: “My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” He walks freely into his hour.
At table he says: “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” And each disciple asks, “Surely not I, Lord?” That is the right question for us too. None of the Eleven was sure of himself; each knew that his heart could fail. Judas also asks, but notice the difference: the others say “Lord”; he says “Rabbi”, teacher. Jesus answers, “You have said so,” leaving the door open even now. The words of Jesus about Judas are solemn: “woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!” They are not a curse but a lament, the grief of a friend. The Church does not pretend to know the final state of any soul; she knows that despair was Judas's last and greatest tragedy, and that no betrayal is greater than the mercy of Christ. On this last day before the Triduum, let us ask with the apostles, “Surely not I, Lord?”, and then run to the One who is about to give his life for betrayers, deniers and deserters, which is to say, for all of us.
Theme: “The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced.”
The listening Servant, the face like flint, the thirty pieces of silver and the humble question of the disciple.
“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” Isaiah 50:4
““Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28–29
Apply: Begin each day of the Triduum with ten minutes of silent listening to the Word.
“The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;” Isaiah 50:7
“looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2
Apply: When you are insulted this week, keep silence and pray for the one who insulted you.
“So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.” Zechariah 11:12
““What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver.” Matthew 26:15
Apply: Name the price for which you are tempted to betray Jesus, and renounce it in confession.
“Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” Psalm 69:20
“And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?”” Matthew 26:22
Apply: Enter the Triduum in humility: ask Jesus to keep you faithful, and trust his mercy if you fall.
The Servant listens, suffers and trusts; he does not turn back.
Judas sold him; we ask humbly, Surely not I, Lord?, and run to his mercy.
Take-home resolution: Prepare the Triduum: confession, the family timetable, and the Good Friday fast.
Dear friends, today the Servant tells us his secret: the Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens, wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught (Isaiah 50:4). Before he speaks, he listens. And because he listens, he does not turn back: I did not hide my face from insult and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).
In the Gospel Judas goes to the chief priests and asks: what will you give me if I betray him to you? They paid him thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). The price of a slave. The Son of God, valued at thirty coins.
At the table Jesus says: one of you will betray me. And each disciple asks: surely not I, Lord? (Matthew 26:22). They do not point at each other. Each looks into his own heart. That is the question for us on this last day before the Triduum. For what price would I sell Jesus? For money? For comfort? For the approval of others?
But remember: Jesus did not curse Judas; he grieved over him and even at the table left the door open. No sin is bigger than his mercy. Tomorrow evening the Triduum begins. Let us come to it as the Servant did, with a listening ear and a face set like flint, trusting that the Lord GOD helps us. Amen.
Children, Judas sold Jesus for thirty silver coins. How sad! Jesus is worth more than all the money and toys in the world. Let us tell Jesus today: you are my best friend, and I will never trade you for anything!
Lord Jesus, Servant who listened morning by morning, you set your face like flint and did not hide it from insult and spitting. You were sold for thirty pieces of silver by a friend. Keep us from selling you for any price. Let us ask humbly, Surely not I, Lord?, and run to your mercy. Bring us with you into these holy days. Amen.
In English tradition this day has long been called Spy Wednesday, for the Gospel in which Judas goes to the chief priests. Isaiah’s Servant and Matthew’s Judas stand as opposites. The Servant’s ear is opened every morning, and he turns neither back nor aside. Judas hears the same Teacher every day, and looks for his opportunity. Psalm 69, which the New Testament often quotes of the Passion, prays between them: “Insults have broken my heart”.
Setting.
This is the third Servant Song. The word “servant” does not appear in the song itself but in the verse just after it (50:10). Here for the first time we hear plainly of suffering. The speaker is a disciple who is beaten for what he has been given to say, yet he remains sure of God’s help. Part of this reading was also heard on Palm Sunday, as the first reading before the Passion. Today we hear it as far as the question “who will declare me guilty?”
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” (50:4)
The purpose of this gift is the tired person in front of us.
“I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” (50:6)
To pull out a man’s beard was a deep humiliation in that world. The Gospels recall the blows and the spitting at the trial of Jesus (Matthew 26:67; 27:30). The verbs are active: he gave his back. Suffering is not simply something that befalls him.
“he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me?” (50:8)
St Paul takes up the language of this courtroom in Romans 8:33–34: “It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?”
How the Church reads it.
The Church reads this song of Christ, of whom Peter writes, “When he was abused, he did not return abuse” (1 Peter 2:23), and the Catechism counts it among the Songs that proclaim the meaning of his Passion (CCC 713). Anyone who teaches the faith can make v. 4 a morning prayer. It gives the order of a Christian day: first to listen, then to speak.
Setting.
Matthew has just told of the woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany (26:6–13), and now he sets another disciple’s act beside it. She gives away something costly for him. Judas asks what he can get for him. The scene then moves to the preparation for the Passover and the meal itself.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““What will you give me if I betray him to you?”” (26:15)
Only Matthew has Judas ask this, which fits the charge of greed in John 12:6. Why he really did it the Gospels do not fully explain. This passage names some of the chief priests, not the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597).
“And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?”” (26:22)
The Greek form expects the answer “no”, yet they ask, and none is sure of himself. It is a healthy fear.
“Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”” (26:25)
The others say “Lord”; Judas says “Rabbi”, a title Jesus had told his disciples not to claim (23:8). The answer leaves the responsibility with the one who asks. Even now, there is still time.
How the Church reads it.
The Church has never taught that God made Judas betray: God “predestines no one to go to hell” (CCC 1037). Verse 24 joins two truths: “as it is written” means that God’s plan is not defeated, and “woe” means that the human act remains guilty. The Mass, too, is set in this story: Paul begins his account of it with “on the night when he was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23). We approach the table knowing that we might be the one who asks, “Surely not I?”
Does “better not to have been born” mean that Judas is in hell?
The words are a grave warning, and Christian writers have often been severe about Judas. But the Church has never declared of any named person that he is lost, and she leaves the judgment to God. What we must take from the verse is the seriousness of sin, and our own need of mercy.