April 5 - Silent Wednesday

Silent Wednesday

by Bambi Wheeler

Scripture: Matthew 26

Key Verse - Matthew 26:14-16

Then one of the Twelve- the one called Judas Iscariot- went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Today is Silent Wednesday. When looking at the events that took place each day of Holy Week, we know that on Sunday, Jesus made His Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. On Monday, He cleansed the Temple of the corrupt money changers. On Tuesday, He gave His Olivet Discourse. And on Wednesday…well…we don’t really know what happened on Wednesday; the writers of the Gospels are silent on the events of that day. It’s possible that Wednesday was the day in which Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, but as far as what Jesus specifically did on that day, we can’t be sure.

But there is one thing we can be sure of- Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that the following night, He would celebrate His last Passover meal with His disciples. He knew that He was going to be betrayed by one of His closest followers.  He knew that He would be arrested. He knew that He was going to be beaten and mocked by the very people He had come to save, He knew that He was going to be denied by one that He had spent the past three years pouring into, and He knew exactly what kind of death was awaiting Him on the other side of all of that. And we know all of this took place because, although the writers of the Gospels are silent about Wednesday, they have MUCH to say about Thursday and Friday. And I love Jesus with every fiber of my being, so it’s so easy for me to just feel anger toward Judas and the Pharisees and the Jewish mob and the Romans and even Peter for all that they put Him through in His final days, but I sometimes wonder…what side of the aisle would I have been on had I been there on Silent Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, or even Good Friday? I WANT to believe I would have been standing alongside Mary and John at the foot of the cross, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I have my own thirty pieces of silver, do I not? I didn’t physically sell Jesus out for a bag of silver, but how is my sin any different, any LESS than Judas’? 

This is an image of a 2000+ year old tree that stands in the Garden of Gethsemane today. This tree was likely in the garden the night Jesus cried out to God that if there was any way the cup be taken from Him, let it be. But He didn’t let His prayer end there; instead, He concluded with, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” And when I first stood at the base of this tree, I was in tears as I imagined what it had seen that night; it witnessed my Lord and Savior praying that prayer so fervently that He literally sweat blood, and my own 30 pieces of silver helped send Him there. And it would be so easy for me to carry around a ton of guilt knowing that, but I don’t have to. Because I also know- Jesus wasn’t forced to that cross.  He didn’t even go out of a sense of obligation. No, He went because He loves me. And He loves you. And He loves every single human that has ever walked this earth. And that fills me with such an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I don’t have any space left for feelings of guilt. Have we all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Sure have. But do we need to carry around guilt from that knowledge? Sure don’t. Jesus went to the cross to handle all of that because He knew we couldn’t. And that is something Judas never realized; he allowed the guilt of his actions to overtake him, but we don’t have to.  Instead of clinging to our thirty pieces of silver, lamenting over our own shortcomings and failures, let’s hand it all over to Jesus and instead spend our time praising Him for what He’s done.