Holy Wednesday | The Silence Before the Cross

4 Days Until Easter

Once again, lot’s of scripture this week as we lead up to Easter. Read today’s in your own Bible or at bible.com

Matthew 26:1–5
Mark 14:1–2
Luke 22:1–6
Isaiah 53:7

“When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.’ Then 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 26:1–4) “For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” (Luke 22:22) “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter…” (Isaiah 53:7)

Holy Wednesday is quiet. After the intensity of Monday and the direct confrontation of Tuesday, everything seems to slow down. There is no major public moment, no crowds, no tables being flipped, no long public teaching, and yet that does not mean nothing is happening. Behind the scenes, everything is moving. Religious leaders are meeting in private, quietly finalizing their plans. Judas is stepping into the shadows, making arrangements that will change everything. And Jesus, fully aware of it all, is not reacting, not scrambling, not trying to regain control. He is waiting.

And if I am honest, that is one of the hardest things to do, because waiting has a way of exposing what we really trust. We live in a world where everything moves fast, where information is instant and responses are expected immediately. Even a short delay can feel frustrating. Waiting fifteen minutes can feel like an eternity, and if that waiting stretches out, it starts to weigh on you. I found myself doing that even recently, checking something over and over again, refreshing the page, wondering what the outcome would be. And even though I knew it probably would not matter that much in the long run, there was still that pull, that need to know, that small space where uncertainty starts to take root. That is the thing about waiting, even a little uncertainty can begin to grow into something bigger if we let it, because in the waiting we feel the lack of control, we feel the unknown, and we feel the silence.

That is exactly where Holy Wednesday sits. Jesus knows what is coming. He knows the cross is not just near, it is certain. He knows betrayal is already in motion. He knows the timeline, and still He does not rush it, He does not force a different outcome, and He does not break the silence. He submits to it. Isaiah had already said it would be this way, like a lamb led to the slaughter He would not open His mouth, not because He is powerless, but because He is surrendered, not because He is unaware, but because He trusts the Father completely. That is a different kind of strength, and it challenges us, because when we are in seasons where things feel unclear, when outcomes are not fully in our hands, when we are sitting in that space between what we know and what we do not know, our instinct is to reach for control, to figure it out, to push, to fix, to force movement. But Jesus shows us something different. He shows us that not every quiet season is empty. Some of them are full of purpose. Some of them are the very place where God is working the most, even if we cannot see it yet.

Holy Wednesday reminds us that just because it is quiet does not mean God is absent. It may mean that something is being prepared. And the question for us is not just what is happening around us, but what is happening within us while we wait, because waiting will either grow our trust or it will grow our anxiety, and often the difference comes down to what we choose to believe about God in the silence. As we move closer to Easter, this is an invitation to trust Him in the quiet, to trust Him in the unknown, to trust Him even when there is just enough uncertainty to make us uncomfortable, because the same God who was working behind the scenes on Wednesday was preparing for resurrection on Sunday, and He is still working, even when we cannot see it.

Prayer

Lord, help me trust You in the waiting. When I feel the tension of uncertainty and the pull to take control, remind me that You are still at work. Teach me to rest in Your timing and to trust that even in the silence, You are moving. In Jesus’ name, amen.