Your Lord does not travel down to Jerusalem, He does not teach the crowds, He does not argue with His enemies. Instead, He prepares.
The only event that happened on Wednesday was despicable. Judas, inexplicably, goes to the chief priests to betray your Savior. Here’s the text:
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people…." Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. (Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16).
If you read it in your Bible, you’ll notice Matthew inserts the story of Mary anointing Jesus with perfume in the middle, and event that had happened the previous Saturday night. Why would Matthew do this? Well, Jesus prophesied she did this to prepare him for His burial (Matthew 26:12). So, contrast Judas who is now preparing Jesus for a Friday burial on Wednesday out of unbelief, and Mary, who did the same on Saturday but out of faith. Both were saddened at the prospect of Jesus dying, but one thought Jesus foolish for going to His death and chose to profit by it; the other thought Him wise and suffered great financial loss by it. What do you think…was He wise, or foolish for going to His death?
Speaking of wisdom, I think Jesus wisely rested on Wednesday. If you remember, He had poured Himself out like water the day before with all the teaching and arguing in the temple, followed by lengthy teaching of the disciples on the Mount of Olives. He had a big day coming tomorrow (Thursday), and of course, He knew Friday, the Passover, was His pending crucifixion. I imagine Him spending Wednesday in prayer, physically resting but spiritually preparing.
He also knew what Judas was doing, as He had prophesied and would again of him on Thursday night. He knew Judas would come back late on Wednesday night, thirty pieces of silver guiltily jingling in his bag. There’s no reason to assume Judas didn’t sleep restfully that night, either, finding peace as he finally gave exercise to his sin.
Perhaps Wednesday’s theme is loneliness, a loneliness made worse for Jesus by betrayal. Was Jesus sad? Of course. He was about to lose Judas to Satan. But He also felt the “joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). Serving God is pleasing at all times, especially the worst of them.
The prospect of doing what God wants makes even the worst events bright with light, if not always cheerfulness. Even loneliness is fellowship if you have God to talk to and console with.
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Sent on April 8, 2020 by the Pastoral Staff (Ted Bigelow, Pastor of Preaching and Development and Steve Ridge, Executive Pastor) of Grace Bible Church of Colorado Springs.
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