Holy Wednesday | Day 4 of Hope Week

This devotional is the fourth installment in our Hope Week devotional series—following Jesus' journey from the gates of Jerusalem, to the cross, to the hope of the empty tomb. Join us every day from March 29 to April 5 to re-experience the story of His sacrifice and the magnitude of His love!

Today, let's reflect on the events of Holy Wednesday—the day of silence.

This past year, I realized I do a lot of talking to God, but very little listening. My prayers were full—full of requests, full of ideas, and full of urgency. I would ask for wisdom, direction, clarity. But then I would say “amen” and move on, never pausing to listen for His answer.

It wasn’t rebellion that drove me forward. It was restlessness. I was uncomfortable with quiet, which left me with very little practice listening to God.

So, I started practicing something simultaneously simple and difficult. I started sitting silently before the Lord for a few minutes each morning. No agenda. No distractions. Just God, me, and a desire to hear His voice clearly.

At first, it felt unproductive, because I love getting things done. My mind wandered. I checked the clock. I rehearsed conversations.

But slowly, I noticed something. The silence was not empty. God was speaking. And when I finally silenced all the distractions, God revealed to me how much I wanted control and how rarely I trusted Him enough to wait on His plans, answers, and solutions.

Holy Wednesday invites us into that same kind of silence.

By this point in the Gospel accounts, Jesus has concluded His public teaching. The confrontations are over. The parables have been told. Now, quietly, behind closed doors, the chief priests are plotting (v. 2), Judas is making arrangements in secret (Luke 22:3-6), and decisions are being made that will lead to the cross.

And what is Jesus doing?

He’s not panicking. He’s not defending Himself. He’s not disrupting Judas’ plot. Instead, He is silent, waiting on the Father’s will.

Holy Wednesday feels quiet in the Gospels, but it is really a quiet before the storm. Yet Jesus remains composed, His focus fixed on the Father.

There is a profound strength in Jesus’ silence. He embodies Isaiah’s prophecy: “He opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). His quiet is not weakness. It is surrender. He trusts the Father enough to yield to what is coming. Before Gethsemane, the trials, or the cross, there is this day of stillness where obedience is settling in.

For us, Holy Wednesday is an invitation to stop filling every space with noise, to resist the urge to control outcomes, and to sit before the Lord long enough for our minds to quiet down. By being silent before God, we are actually saying, “Father, I don’t need to rush ahead. I want Your will more than my plans.”

Emotionally, this can feel unsettling. Silence exposes our fears, doubts, and anxieties. Yet if we remain there with God, that silence becomes spiritually transformative. In the quiet, we discover that God is already at work. His purposes are not threatened by hidden plots or uncertain outcomes.

Holy Wednesday teaches us that some of God’s most important movements happen in the stillness. And sometimes the holiest thing we can do is simply be still long enough to hear Him.

How do you typically respond in situations where you lack control? How might adopting Jesus’ approach of silence before the Lord change your perspective?

At Crossroads, Easter is more than a day. It's the culmination of a week of expectation—as we follow Jesus from the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the cross on Good Friday, to His triumphant resurrection that first Easter morning.

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