Sing Forth His Praises!

“So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer” Luke 23:9

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is time to speak and a time to keep silent. And this makes sense enough, but the issue is, when is the fitting time? When is it better to speak? And when is it necessary to stay quiet? This is the art of wisdom.  

Yet, as a society, we have pretty unanimously voted in favor of speaking. Our world, filled with technology and social media, never stops speaking, be it with words, pictures, or videos. Background music follows us everywhere. There is pressure to yelp every restaurant, photo every meal, and post every opinion that passes between your ears.

This obsession with speaking has crowded out any positive value of silence. Yet, our Lord masters the art of the silence for us, so that we might speak better for him and so that our words may be conformed to his words.

In the gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, we read that Pontius Pilate tried to acquit the innocent one. Yet, Pilate didn’t have the courage to do the right thing. He wasn’t going to risk his life for Jesus, so Pilate threw him to the wolves, granting the demands of the violent gang. Pilate set free a murderer and rioter, and Jesus was handed over to the will of the riotous crowd.

And with this, it appears that the many words of the crowd have won. Jesus didn’t even defend himself Luke 23:9. In his quietness, we hear no eloquence, no powerful reproaches, no clear condemnation of wickedness. The loud speaking of the people appeared to have defeated the silence of Jesus; yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

Here are seven things you need to know about the silence of Jesus.

“Then they remembered his words. ” Luke 24:8

2. The silence of Jesus makes us remember how he prophesied that the Son of Man must suffer and die for our salvation.

“And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying,

“The Son of Man must suffer many things

and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes,

and be killed,

and on the third day be raised.”

Luke 9:21-22

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.“

4. The silence of Jesus reminds us that silent suffering was necessary for Jesus. We are taught that sometimes being quiet takes more strength than talking.

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

Isaiah 53:10

5. The silence of Jesus instructs us that sometimes silence speaks louder than words.

“For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence,

and a time to speak.“

Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 7

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved,

it is the power of God. “

1 Corinthians 1:18

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures. ”

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

It is now our turn to speak.

Jesus rose to make us those who speak about his resurrection. In fact, in the narrow sense here, we are told not to imitate our Lord. Back in Luke 21, Christ told us that when we are dragged before rulers for his name not to worry about what to say, for the Spirit will teach us what to say.  

And even if the world silences us with death, we have the sure confidence that the silence of Christ is more powerful than all the rhetoric of the world. Thus, let us root our faith and confidence in the Word of Christ that never fails and the silence of Christ unto death that won for us the resurrection.