Good Wednesday

In honor of Easter being in April the members of the CW blog chain chose the theme of joy. When I chose this date for my blog chain entry I didn’t realize that this was what we call the Passion Week. I already have a blog regarding the Passover meal and what we call the Lord’s Supper. But that would have only fit if the theme was “suffering and redemption.” So it was back to the drawing board to think about it some more.

I called this blog “Good Wednesday” for a specific reason. I think biblical and historical evidence support the idea Christ was crucified on a Wednesday rather than a Friday. However I am not going to use this arena as a platform to expound on this theory.

As I thought about this time of the year and how I could tie in the elements of joy and Easter, I couldn’t help but realize the first Easter was anything but joyful.

Crucifixion was one of the most horrific and cruel methods of execution which had ever been invented. The condemned person was nailed to a cross, his weight being born on the nail driven through his feet. Because the nails in the wrist also affected the nerves controlling breathing the person had to force himself to stand up, in excruciating pain in order to catch a breath.

The person could take several days to die if left, more from dehydration than the actual crucifixion. If the Romans were in a hurry they would break the legs of the condemned thus causing a quicker death by suffocation. When we read the account of the crucifixion in the Bible this is the reason the guards broke the legs of the other two men. Passover was about to start and they couldn’t hang over the holiday.

But we are told that when they came to do the same to Jesus, they discovered He was already dead. The spear driven through his heart released the blood which had already separated into its two basic components; hemoglobin and plasma. The strain of losing so much blood from the brutal beating Jesus received at the hands of the Romans and the strain on His heart from this lack indicated that Jesus died of a broken heart: His heart failed due to the strain.

But the significance of the cross comes into perspective when we read Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus considered his sacrifice a joy. He endured the pain and suffering because He knew what the end result would be. His death would satisfy God’s justice for our wrongdoing.

Because His death, we rejoice. Paul writes in Romans 5:10-11 “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Have a joyful Good Wednesday.