Have you ever run across one of those tests or exercises where you are asked to “read” a paragraph that has a substantial number of words missing? Or, maybe, you’ve been asked to try to read a few sentences where all the vowels have been removed from the words leaving only consonants. It’s fairly remarkable that we can, indeed, actually “read” those paragraphs or sentences and they make perfect sense to us. Our brains kick in. Without too much conscious thought, our brains take all the things we’ve ever read – all of what we know about words and spelling and sentence structure – and fills in the gaps.
That happens all the time. When faced with an unknown – with missing information – our brains just scaffold on top of what we do know and fills in the missing information. It completes a picture.
Most often, that’s a really good thing. But, maybe not for the Wednesday of Holy Week.
I love that we are paying special attention to walking alongside Jesus during his last week. I love that we are attempting to put ourselves in that place – in that time – day by day through the week in an effort to experience the Passion more fully and more profoundly.
The truth is, though, we have no idea what Jesus did on Wednesday. The bible is silent on the topic. In fact, Wednesday of Holy Week is commonly called Silent Wednesday.
Oh, there’s lots of speculation about where he might have gone and what he might have done. We get busy filling in the gaps. We can reasonably conclude some of the things going on around him. But as for Jesus himself, we simply don’t know. It’s an unsolvable mystery. Mystery.
When we stop to think about it – when we allow ourselves to admit it – there’s a lot we don’t know regarding the Messiah. The Christ. The Son of the Living God. Jesus. It’s too big. It’s too far beyond our ability to understand or comprehend. It’s too… Holy. It is of God.
Maybe the best way to spend the Wednesday of Holy Week is to embrace – to live in to – the mystery of the Christ. The beautiful unknown. The unknowable. The incomprehensible.
Set aside the day to drink in the Holy.
I hope to see you at all of our Holy Week services as we experience the Passion together.
David White
Connections Pastor
Johns Creek Baptist Church