THIRTY

April 8, 2025 Jeff Reed

*is it I*? asked one.
*is it I*? asked another anxiously
glancing around the table.
you kept your eyes away from His,
staring down at the broken bread
and half-empty cup of wine,
unable to see their simmering glory
taken as you were by the glimmer
of the promised thirty pieces of silver.

The Last Supper, Leonardo Davinci, 1495-1498

Note: Davinci’s famous painting captures the moment Jesus announces that one of His disciples will betray Him. Davinci breaks from tradition by placing Judas close to his right. Notice that he clutches a bag of silver coins, and that his face is turned away into partial shadow. The cut-out image above with labels is from https://smarthistory.org/leonardo-last-supper/.