The Calm Before the Storm
It’s Wednesday of Passion Week.
It’s the day before all hell breaks loose—and I mean that in a literal sense.
After all, the Bible refers to “the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” and those very powers were readying themselves for the their big moment!
As Jesus will say (the next evening) as the soldiers arrive in the Garden of Gethsemane:
“Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53).
Darkness was, indeed, closing in, and Jesus’ days of public ministry are now over.
The Lord has said everything He needed to say, and now it’s time to do what He came to do:
Demonstrate God’s great love for the world by dying for our sins.
So it’s two days before the Cross and things are eerily quiet.
Jesus has just 48 hours left to live (humanly speaking); but interestingly, the Gospels are all but silent.
Scholars suggest the Lord may be quietly preparing both Himself and His disciples for the wicked onslaught to come; the onslaught that was orchestrated to work for our good, before the foundation of the world.
God is in charge, not the darkness.
Perhaps Jesus and the disciples are with Lazurus – and his sisters Mary and Martha – who all happen to live right there on the Mount of Olives.
Nearness to the ones you love always is a comfort and help when the walls seem to be closing in.
I imagine some sweet times of worship, prayer, and instruction from His word were taking place.
And certainly they sang from the psalms, as was their custom (Mark 14:26).
I wonder which ones were on Jesus’ heart just before His Appointed Suffering.
Was it Psalm 91?
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Or was it Psalm 22 (a psalm He will quote from while on the Cross)?
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Though we can’t know what Jesus said that day, we can be sure they were some of the most encouraging words ever spoken and ever heard.
But, sadly, not everyone on Wednesday was huddled around Jesus.
Judas was busy—he was out and about.
And this is that ill-fated day, commentators suggest, that the traitor began the work of betraying.
That’s why in some Christian circles, Wednesday of Passion Week is called “Spy Wednesday.”
Matthew tells us that Judas met with the chief-priest-bad-guys beforehand to broker a deal.
“What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” he asked (Matthew 26:15).
And “they counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him. From then on Judas was looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them.”
That’s how it went down.
And Judas found that opportunity he was looking for the following night in a Garden called Gethsemane.
The contrast between the betrayer and the other disciples is amazing to me.
While the Eleven are being encouraged by Jesus and drawing closer to Him, Judas is thinking only about enriching himself; and as a result, he’s moving further and further into Darkness.
There are a host of theories about what went wrong with this one of whom Jesus says, “It would have been better had he never been born” (Matthew 26:24).
Here’s the short answer: He never got over himself, he never softened his heart, and he never wanted to give up his sin.
He never believed.
No room for God.
No desire to change.
No interest in spiritual things.
That’s a death wish.
And we all have a choice to make in that regard, don’t we?
Choose life.
So… The Calm before the Storm.
This world gets more complicated with each passing day.
Who knows what’s ahead? The Bible isn’t exactly optimistic in that regard, is it?
Maybe this is the calm before The Storm of storms.
The Day of the Lord; the Day His judgment comes and puts an end to human history as we know it.
Here’s how it’s described, but pay special attention to the last line.
“I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved…” Joel 2:30-32
Saved from the Day of the Lord? Yes, a pass on the Apocalypse!
That’s the promise.
In the calm before the Storm, we (who are trusting in Him) are being made ready for our salvation, for rescue, NOT for the storm of His wrath, as the Bible clearly says:
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ ( 1 Thessalonians 5:9).
It’s Wednesday, and it very well could be the calm before the storm; only for us, there will be no Storm—capital S.
Thanks to what our Lord does on Friday.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!
Praise His name forever and ever!
Amen!
