“You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:35)

It’s Wednesday of Holy Week. In Western Christianity, this day is sometimes known as “Spy Wednesday”, a reference to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, for thirty silver coins. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, this day is called “Holy and Great Wednesday.”

We are nearing the end of our Lenten Journey. Lent is, without a doubt, a long and difficult trek. Passage through Holy Week has been fairly compared to a walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death that David describes in the 23rd Psalm. And, like the Psalm, this journey ends very well. The joy in the dawn of Easter morning makes it all worthwhile.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

“Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, AMEN.”

PRAYER FOCUS: Amazing

What if you saw a miracle? What if that miracle happened to you? Would it amaze you?

When Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem that Wednesday he didn’t come to argue with the priests and scribes. He taught: the Parables of the Two Sons, of the Tenants, and of the Wedding Banquet (Matt. 21:28-22:14, Mark 12:1-11, Luke 20:9-19). He performed miraculous healings: “The blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them” (Matt. 21:14-15).

Jesus was, in a word, amazing.

(Music by Phillips, Craig & Dean. Footage from the movie “Jesus of Nazareth”. Presented under license from IgniterMedia.)

It is clear from the four gospels that wherever Jesus went, people were amazed. Whether they were rich or poor, young or old, sick or well, friends or enemies — people were amazed. The Bible (NIV) uses the word amazed thirty-nine times, always referring to how people were amazed at Jesus.

Terrible things began to happen the next day, Thursday, events that had been prophesied about hundreds of years prior. But before we follow the Scriptures through that, remember what it was like when God became flesh and dwelled among us, how much He loved–with a pure, powerful, and utterly amazing love.