John 19:9
He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
Perhaps the hardest moment in the life of a Christian is that moment when God is silent in the face of our sufferings or in light of grave injustice. We weep bitter tears and tremble in agony at the feet of a silent God and wonder, in deep despair, why there is no answer. Well, we take heart because we see God’s pattern even here.
Is there a danger more grave than that which Jesus faced before Pilate? He stands in silence and yet it’s Pilate himself that has the power to grant him safety from the horrible cross that beckons. Should we find ourselves reeling in pain, in tragedy, in loss, or the death of loved ones, or any of life’s multiplicity of calamities, we meet our match in Jesus. He stands silent in the face of torture and death.
And should we find ourselves the victim of some injustice or another, or if we howl in bitter dismay at the injustices of this world, we must know that there was never a graver injustice than in the crucifixion of the sinless Son of God. Nothing else compares. No miscarriage of justice on this earth – no poverty, corruption, or murder – can ever rise to the odious level of this singular event.
And, yet, Jesus was silent.
He was silent because He knows what his scattered and fearful disciples do not – that he will endure these grotesque things so that we will not. He will take upon himself these trials not because he deserved them but because of his love for the lost. He will endure in silence the blows of whips and the nails and the mockery and the slow suffocation precisely so that we will not have to endure what we deserve. That is the reason behind it all, Christian. That is the reason that there is hope even in the blackest moment of despair. You are not forsaken; your salvation has not fled you. It is simply not Sunday morning yet…when you endure the silence, it is still Thursday night and Friday morning. He will heal and restore just as he will avenge the wrongs but he will do it at a time we cannot yet tell, so take care in the silence and be faithful for no one hopes for what he can see. Wait on the Lord.
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