On this day, sometimes called “Spy Wednesday,” Isaiah sings of resoluteness in the face of trials:
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Jesus, too, appears as one whose face is set like flint in today’s Gospel, a scene from the Last Supper according to Matthew. His betrayer, Judas, is seated at table with him, having already arranged to hand him over for thirty pieces of silver, and yet Jesus does not rebel against the Father’s will or turn back from the fate before him. Later in the Garden, Jesus will reveal that he also feels fear—he is not an impassive Stoic—but his will is firm as rock.
What could give Jesus such resolve in the face of betrayal? Only the confidence of love: love for us, for humanity; but on a deeper level, the love of the Father that fills him in the Holy Spirit. It is this love—an eternal, overflowing, and life-giving love—that makes Isaiah’s words so applicable to Jesus: The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced… See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong? In the end, not even death will prove the Lord wrong.
Today, pondering the depths of love that give Jesus courage in the face of death, let us ask the Father to fill us with the Spirit of his love, so that with his Son we might be able to serve him with unshakeable confidence.