In order to use my disciple’s tongue to give hope to the hopeless, encouragement to the heavy burdened and inject new life into the spiritually dead; I must first listen like a disciple at the feet of my master, my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Only then will His grace flow through me. Only then will my tongue be guarded against saying more than is necessary for it is the Holy Spirit that leads through and through.
Woe to me if I preach a different Gospel from what was given to me by my Lord. Woe to me if I added flavour to what was already perfected in Him! For if I do so it means I have not surrendered my all to Him, I have not laid my self down as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord my God. I have betrayed the Lord my God for ‘thirty pieces of silver’. What are these thirty pieces of silver? Want of personal recognition? Affirmation? Vain glory? Honour? Empty pride? Hidden lustful desires? Want for vengeance? Wrath? Greed? Or just plain laziness! Who’s disciple am I really? Who am I serving?
Lord Jesus make me a disciple after Your own heart! Come Holy Spirit come. Come dwell in my heart, remove all that is not of You. Wash me clean and I will be white as snow. Fill me with Your grace, peace, love and joy. So that I may glorify my Lord by my life. Amen
First Reading
Isaiah 50:4-9 ·
Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me
The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.
My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me?
Then let us go to court together.
Who thinks he has a case against me?
Let him approach me.
The Lord is coming to my help,
who will dare to condemn me?
Gospel
Matthew 26:14-25
‘The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will’
One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”’ The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.
When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’ They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’ Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, ‘Not I, Rabbi, surely?’ ‘They are your own words’ answered Jesus.
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