I’ve been reading through the Easter story today and have come across something that I find fascinating and countercultural for the days in which we are living. It concerns the moments when Jesus has been arrested and is being questioned by both the chief priests and the Roman governor Pilate. Jesus was being charged with some serious crimes: blasphemy, starting a riot/revolt, and claiming to be a king, and therefore directly opposing Caesar. All of these charges held heavy punishments, which He, of course, did receive. The political and religious leaders were nervous about an uprising like those that had happened in the past and wanted to quickly stamp out anything that might resemble that. The Roman Empire did not like troublemakers, and the leaders in Judea didn’t want to feel the heat of Caesar. We of course know that these claims about Jesus were false, at least false in the way that they were proposed. What staggered me as I read the account is that Jesus throughout his ‘trial’ refused to respond, apologize, defend himself, bring His point of view to the claims, or call out the lies that were being told by His accusers. He didn’t seem to reply in any helpful way at all.

Here are some examples;

Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent. Matthew 26:62-63

Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”“You have said so,” Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. Matthew 27:11-14

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. Mark 15:3-5

This wasn’t His default position in every moment throughout His life. In other contexts and times, Jesus would respond to the questions being asked of Him by the Pharisees and the people. Whilst they may not have enjoyed or expected the responses He gave them, He quite often entertained their questions. We know, of course, that these passages we’ve just read were a part of God’s redemption plan; it was Jesus’ time. So, whilst He could have argued Himself out of it, or simply been transported away by the Spirit, it would have still ended up in His death, but I have often wondered why He didn’t take this most public of platforms to set the record straight on a few things like He had done throughout His ministry. He could have called out idolatry, the Pharisees’ lies, Roman rule, the political state of the synagogue, or even preached more truth about the Kingdom, or the coming Spirit, etc. but…..

He chose silence.

When I think about this moment being played out today, I wonder how His silence would have been interpreted. We live in a culture where people demand an answer, statement, or point of view for everything. In the whistleblowing, virtue signaling, campaign-building world we live in, we are all expected to have a comment and a speech about where we stand on everything. Our media feeds are filled with strong-minded statements from everyone and their aunt about their opinions on things that both concern and don’t concern them at all.

We seem to adopted a position that those who speak have nothing to hide but those who refuse are guilty in their silence.

We ask questions and make statements like; Why would we be silent on something if we know we’ve done the right thing? Why would we hide our story unless it was falsified? As we’ve already alluded to, the Biblical position on false accusation is not necessarily a silence-first policy. Many times throughout scripture, people have spoken and given account of the truth; Joseph, David, and Daniel all spoke a different point of view to the authority of their day. Peter, John, and Stephen all gave strong opposing accounts in front of the Jerusalem courts with mixed results. But the scriptures also show us that a robust defense is not always the Biblical mandate either.

There are times when silence is what is required, when restraint is the correct course of action. The reality is that the world doesn’t need a response from us on every issue going. I might have an opinion (often poorly formed) on many things happening in the world, but I don’t need to add to the noise. No one needs more noise. Even when the issue is something that concerns me, I don’t have to release a public status, blog, video, or reaction at all. Sometimes silence is the most honored, God-anointed way to respond. Our only driver in this is whether God requires us to respond or not. As always, His voice is our plumb line.

This helps me greatly in a world that invites, and often demands, me to speak up for fear of being blamed or misunderstood.