Give and give and give again

I was struck by starkness today. In the Gospel of Mark, at the Last Supper the following is recounted,

"......but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’
While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body." (full text)

These two things so close together jarred me. Jesus goes from contemplating his own betrayal - something which could not fail to have great emotional impact on him - to giving everything to those around him.

Sometimes it is easy to forget just how much that kiss from Judas must have hurt - it is easy to lose it in the meta-narrative that it had to happen, that it is part of the story and even that what comes next must grab our attention so much more. But contempleting that moment when Jesus publicly says,
"You will betray me and how terrible that will be for you..." - words which have heart wrenching amount of compassion in them - and realizing that the next part of that is that instead of drawing in and shutting down and building walls Jesus gives more.

What does this say to our own self-protection? Simply that giving and giving and giving again is the path which Jesus followed - God made human gave and gave freely in love.

That giving freely in love is something which we often find difficult, especially when we find ourselves pushed to the edges of our experience or emotions, but this juxtaposition in Mark shows, not only who Jesus is, but who we are to aspire to be.