Holy Week: The Powerful Meaning Behind Silent Wednesday
They call it Silent Wednesday, because after a flurry of activity, Jesus does nothing of interest on the Wednesday of Holy Week. He had made three consecutive trips to the Temple to provoke the leadership. First on Sunday, he went to the Temple as the grand marshal of a triumphant parade. On Monday, he returned as a passionate reformer, overturning tables and making room for the poor and the lame where once there had only been commerce and greed. Tuesday had been the day of rabbinic debate and prophetic rebuke. The stage was set for a final showdown, but on Wednesday, Jesus stayed in Bethany and did almost nothing at all.
And yet, as he waited outside the city, the most mysterious wonder so far in Holy Week took place in the Temple courts and in the palace of the high priest.
It was on this day that the enemies of Jesus made their final arrangements to lynch the Son of God. They believed that their actions thwarted the would-be Messiah’s plans, and yet nothing could be further from the truth. Each choice they made only furthered the plot of God’s greatest story. The priests thought they were architects and custodians of the Temple and its legacy, but even their scheming manipulations only fulfilled the will of the Author of the story.
The whole drama of Israel is being lived out in one man—Jesus of Nazareth. But if he is Israel, who would play the villains? Who would be Pharaoh oppressing God’s children? “The chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest … and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him” (Matthew 26:3-4). But of course, they did. It had always been God’s will that “the stone that the builders rejected … become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22). In God’s story, there is always a moment when “the anointed one shall be cut off” before the moment of triumph comes (Daniel 9:26). The servant of the Lord must always be “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3). That is how the story goes, how it has always gone.
But what about Judas’ betrayal? Would Jesus’ purpose be subverted by his own friend? No, God’s servants had always been opposed, and all too often betrayed. “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9). Jesus even took time to quote that Psalm before the betrayal happened. “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he” (John 13:18-19). The betrayal was not a surprise; it was inevitable.
Even the details of the betrayal ring in harmony with old prophetic chords. Like Joseph’s envious brother Judah (Genesis 37:26-28), Judas Iscariot sold his friend for a handful of silver. Thirty pieces of silver to be precise (Matthew 26:15). It was the standard price for a slave, a fitting amount for a man’s life (Exodus 21:32). More importantly, it had once been the wages owed to a shepherd-prophet named Zechariah who threw down the coins in the Temple (Zechariah 11:12-13). A few days later, Judas Iscariot would throw down his thirty pieces of silver in the same temple (Matthew 27:5). Each scene that transpires on Wednesday seems like a replay of a story we have already heard.
The miracle of Wednesday is that while Jesus stayed in Bethany, nothing more nor less than his own will was done in Jerusalem. Neither the priests nor Judas were subverting Jesus’ purpose; they were accomplishing it. Even their lethal defiance has been accounted for by the Lord. “It was the will of the LORD to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10). The God of the Temple did not have to stand in its courts to shape its future. While he sat with friends in Bethany, his enemies did only “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28).
Dr. Benjamin Williams is the Senior Minister at the Edgemere Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, TX and a regular writer at So We Speak. Check out his books The Faith of John’s Gospel and Why We Stayed or follow him on Twitter, @Benpreachin.
