Silent

“But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.” (Like 4: 30).

Jesus Walking Through Crowd (Unknown)

I have a big mouth – a very very big mouth.

It is generally very difficult for me to make sure that I keep my words and thoughts to myself.  I am so easily riled up and so easily driven to respond to things that I very often get myself into all sorts of strife because I simply do not know how to keep my mouth closed.

They say that the less said, the most easily mended.  And this is very true.

I have often found myself in the unfortunate position of needing to excuse my behaviour and apologise for my poorly-chosen words simply because I did not have the discipline to hold my tongue at an inopportune moment.

And I have been thinking about this today.  You see Christ remained silent when being questioned and tried unjustly.

He listened to what His accusers said to Him and He made a decision not to respond.  Now, remember, Christ is God.  He is perfect Man and perfect God.  That means that He had more intelligence than those accusers.  He also had more understanding than those accusers.  He could have very easily exerted His own ability to completely deflate any argument that they raised.  He could have used all His Divine power to reveal their deceit.  Instead, He stood silently.  Instead, He did not answer or respond.  He did not reveal His superior intellect or His superior understanding.

He stood in silence and waited.  He stood in silence and listened.  He stood in silence as a witness to evil.

And I have been thinking about that today because I have been thinking about how difficult it can be to hold my tongue at difficult moments.

His mother did not speak either.  How easy it would have been for her to call out and say, “My Son is innocent.  You are evil.”  How easy it would have been for her to say, “This is unfair.”

But that is NOT what either of them did.  The stood – silent – and waited…

And though it looked like they waited for the will of men – unjust men – but instead they were silent so that they could wait for the Holy Will of God.

Previously, Christ had walked away from false accusations unscathed.  He had looked at the matter at hand and decided to leave and He had done this without anybody stopping Him…

“All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.  But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” (Like 4:28-30).

And if God wanted that for Christ during the Passion that would have happened as well.  But instead, Christ remained silent and waited for the Holy Will of God.

And He did that for love of me.  Because He loves me and my soul more than His own comfort and intelligence.  And at the end of the day, that is what it really means to lay down one’s life for a friend…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.