Passion Week Journey — Silent Wednesday
As we journey with Jesus through His last week before He was crucified on Friday, we have seen remarkable events unfold. On Sunday, there was the pomp and circumstance of His royal parade into Jerusalem as king. On Monday, Jesus cleared the temple of its corruption as only a pure and fiercely loyal priest should. And then on Tuesday Jesus taught a master Rabbi class whose knowledge was and is unmatched. It is interesting, that Matthew devotes 22% of all his writing to reveal what Jesus taught on that Tuesday alone.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke packed so much drama and action into Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, that one might wonder what would be in store for us on Wednesday. Surprise! For there is only silence. No recorded details and teaching. No confrontations with the church leaders and Pharisees, and no mid-week instruction to His disciples. Like a lull before an approaching storm, Wednesday was silent.
For me, silence can be unsettling and disturbing, because I like noise – at least some noise. There is background music as I read and study. The radio is usually playing my favorite music as I drive. I even have an old box fan running in the corner of my bedroom to generate a soft white-noise to help me sleep. I am just not good with silence.
However, being silent before the Lord is another matter altogether. Silence is actually a measure of the quality of one’s faith. For instance, we know the passage in Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” These are verses to which great songs of loud rejoicing are made! But keep reading, for Scripture continues, “’The LORD is my portion,’ says the soul, therefore, ‘I will hope in Him.’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:24-26). Silence reveals the depth of our trust in the Lord.
All the noise of Jesus’ passion week that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday – and then on Wednesday Jesus is absolutely quiet. All the horrors of the wrath of God against our sin and guilt was about to be placed on Him in less than 48 hours, but Jesus is not panicking. He is not pacing the floor nor is He telling all His friends how bad His misfortune was about to be. No – He is absolutely calm, because He had absolute trust in the outworking of the plan of His Father. Isaiah had prophesied, “He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7).
How quiet is our soul before the Lord today? We are experiencing an unprecedented event as we watch COVID 19 spread across the world and even into our local region. How long will it last? Will scientist soon develop a remedy to fight it or discover a vaccine to avoid it? We miss seeing our friends and gathering together as His church. We miss eating at restaurants or having dates or traveling to see loved ones across the nation. Our quarantine and social distancing measures have gone from days to now weeks and may involve months to come before we sense some semblance of freedom we once enjoyed.
How quiet is our soul? Do we truly believe that the steadfast love of the Lord NEVER ceases? Do we rest quietly knowing that His mercies NEVER come to an end? Does our soul have the confidence to wait quietly with absolute hope that the Lord will bring His good to this season’s distress? Silence reveals the depth of our faith in the good grace of the Lord.
Jesus spent that Wednesday quiet before the Lord, because He knew that His Father would keep His promise to bring salvation to us – to all who hope in Him. May the Holy Spirit – that great and wonderful Counselor and Helper sent by Jesus Himself – refresh our souls with the quiet peace of our Lord and Savior.