The Passion Week: Wednesday

“The Calm Before The Storm”

 
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Romans 8:32 (NKJV)

There is much we can learn from studying the chronological order of our Bible, just not much on the Wednesday of the Passion week. What began with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem will culminate with the empty tomb on what will be the first Easter morning. In between these two historical events in human history there is much taking place in public and behind the scenes. Confrontation, betrayal, instruction, love, prophecy, sorrow, and struggle fill each day and night.

Since the Bible doesn’t reveal to us what the Lord did on the Wednesday of the Passion Week, Bible scholars speculate as to what the Lord and His disciples might have been doing that day. Many agree that Jesus most likely spent the day and night resting in Bethany from the past few days of tumultuous opposition as the way of the Cross is near. Bethany would have been the perfect location as it was just a stones throw from the city but far enough away to experience some comfort in the home of Jesus close friends, Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

Jesus came to give life and life to the fullest can be completely understood by many. The life Jesus offers His followers is total life, both quality and quantity. Eternal life is something only Jesus can provide. This is what separates all other religions from Christianity. The life Jesus offers His followers is a life that rises above every situation and circumstance you could think of. Jesus had proven it days earlier when He raised Lazarus to life. You recall Lazarus had been in the grave four days and when Jesus arrived Lazarus body was already beginning to decompose and as the Bible says, he “stinketh.”  

What an incredible miracle Jesus performed in raising Lazarus, a miracle that conquers our final enemy, death itself. To think, Jesus was promising His disciples life after death if they believed in Him. John 11:25-26 makes it perfectly clear as we read Jesus words to Martha as she spoke with Jesus about her brother Lazarus who had just died. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Jesus wasn’t asking her then nor you and I today to believe blindly. In just a few seconds after Jesus conversation with Martha Jesus stood outside the tomb of Mary and Martha’s deceased brother who at this moment in time now stinketh in the grave and said boldly and confidently as if He was calling a child in for supper, “Lazarus, come forth.” The Bible says without hesitation Lazarus rose from the dead and came walking out of the grave, fully alive like never before. And if that wasn’t enough proof for one to believe, Jesus Himself in just a couple of days after being beaten nearly to death was nailed to a Roman Cross in the most inhumane as a public spectacle, left to die out in the open for the world to see.

Again, as our bibles will make clear, Jesus didn’t just suffer and pass out due to the pain. Jesus died in our place, the sinless for the sinner. Jesus paid the ultimate price that day being guilty of only one thing, loving you and me to the point of death. We know that Jesus died because when the Roman soldier took His sword and pierced Jesus side we learn both blood and water came out. Medical examiners conclude this happens when the heart burst. It is right to conclude then the true cause of Jesus death was a broken heart. Sin breaks the heart of God and to provide the only remedy for sin, God sent His Only Begotten Son to come from heaven to earth and be born into this world and live a perfect sinless life then offer Himself up as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  
 
For over two thousand years now people of all ages and from all walks of life have come to experience the gift of eternal life made possible because of the grace and love and mercy of God in Christ. Maybe today you don’t sense God’s presence in your life, you wonder what God is up to. May the Wednesday before Jesus goes to the Cross encourage you. Psalm 121:4 reminds us, “Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.” God is always working in front of and behind the scenes to bring us to a glorious future. Don’t forget that when you don’t see or feel God working, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

When you are under attack or overwhelmed in this life don’t try doing more, do less. Do what Jesus did. Get away from the crowd, surround yourself with people who love God and love you. Rest with them while seeking the heart of God. Let God strengthen you and prepare you for the next steps. Walking with God is not always easy as we see in following Christ but its always glorious. While you rest, rest assured knowing this…

 
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose…”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

Romans 8:28, 35, 37-39 (NKJV)

I LOVE YOU!