“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.” From Mark 14:10-21

I’m generally a rule follower, but there’s one rule of the elementary school cafeteria that I often ignored: no trading food.

It’s not that I disliked what I was eating. I packed my lunch, so I knew it was all stuff I liked! But once a week, there was at least one friend who saved up some extra allowance to buy the really special snacks: Fruit Gushers, Oreos, or an extra slice of pizza. And if you were lucky enough that particular day, you might have something they liked enough to make a trade. "Move over slimy turkey sandwich…helloooooo Cool Ranch Doritos!"

As Americans, I guess you can say capitalism runs deep in our culture. So much so that we learn as early as the schoolyard how to barter for what we want. This is resourceful of us if nothing else. But the constant desire to “trade up” for “the next best thing” leaves us in a hollow, never-ending search. And this has dire consequences when it bleeds out of the commercial economy and into our spiritual lives.

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