Isaiah 53:1-7; Mark 9:9-13, 30-32
Farmville Presbyterian Church
February 28, 2021
As we walk further into this season of Lent, we cannot help but recognize that this is a time of suffering both in the world and in our spiritual walk. Together we receive, again, in this church season, the suffering of our Lord, the Son of God and the Son of Man, who willingly and without protest took up his own cross and showed us a love the world had never seen and has never seen since. If that death on a cross was, in fact, weighed down by the sinfulness and brokenness of the world – past, present, and future – and if Jesus was cut off from God in a hellish way, then his death was the worst imaginable. And Jesus walked that lonesome path through the valley of the shadow of death, under a blanket of smothering silence. When he could have objected or pleaded his case or proved his accusers wrong, he …held …his …tongue.
Of course, that is not the only way we experience the idea of silence in today’s reflection. All of the passages that I am reading today each point to the reality of silence and how that shapes the world around us. Walk with me, friends, as I consider these passages and the silence that can speak to us in suffering.
When the prophet Isaiah was speaking for God hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus, it’s unlikely he had Jesus in mind when he gave his prophecy. Otherwise, these words would have been meaningless in his own day and the centuries to follow. Originally, he most likely referred to someone else. Some think that the suffering servant might even be Israel itself, but the moment Jesus endured his ordeal and rose from the dead, the early church could not help but connect the Isaiah passage, the suffering servant idea, directly to Jesus, our anguished messiah. So much about that passage and others seem to reflect Jesus’ experience. Ever since our Christ, no other interpretation of Isaiah has spoken to us with such passion. What stood out to me this last week, however, is the fact that servant who suffers is silent as he is being led to slaughter or being fleeced. This point is clearly made in Acts 8:32-33 when the Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip to explain what this exact passage in Isaiah means with its focus on silent suffering. Philip explains it through the lens of Jesus.
Even though the death of Jesus was a tremendous travesty, he suffered that cosmic injustice without complaint or objection. He even told Judas at the Last Supper to do what he was set to do, tacitly giving his approval. The only way Jesus could have risen to God’s design with all of this was if he was willing to take all of this weight on himself. It seems hard to imagine what it might be like to willingly suffer for another for their good or for their sake, even if they don’t want you to or care, but it strikes me that it might be like being a parent or friend for a loved one in need, who is hurting, maybe even lashing out, and you take it anyway. You suffer with them and for them, maybe fighting for what they need, for their good, for their help. Jesus said in John 15 that the greatest love is the one that lays their life down for a friend, for another. Suffering for someone else out of love is a way of giving your life for them; however, we should not take this lightly or allow the relationship to become abusive.
When we willingly suffer for someone for God’s purposes, out of God’s love, as a sister or brother in faith, that can be a beautiful gift. We may not be able to walk in exactly the same path as Jesus, but we are from time to time called upon to give ourselves in difficult, sacrificial service. How many folk do you know who have had to care for an aging, angry or confused loved one? It can easily hurt us to allow ourselves to feel their pain or to be open in trying to help. Our love there, though, can be a holy vessel for God’s grace and love.
Mark 9:9-13
The second journey into silence is one I actually read last week, the verses following the Transfiguration of Jesus. After James and John and Peter had seen Jesus dramatically change appearance and had a miraculous experience, Jesus strictly ordered them to be silent about it. “Say nothing to anyone until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Of course, they had no idea what he was talking about, but they understood the “say nothing” part.
This use of silence is different from the suffering servant; it is not consenting to something by not objecting, but this silence is the realization that there is a time to speak and a time to refrain from speaking. Facebook could really use this lesson. We should mightily resist throwing out our words without understanding when it is OK to speak what we want. Here, Jesus is saying that they need to wait to talk about mountaintop experience until after he is resurrected. Jesus knows his resurrection will reframe everything. Without the resurrection, it would just be confusion. Everything about the early church was supposed to be interpreted through the cross and the empty grave. To try to make sense of what he was doing and saying apart from his death and resurrection would just lead people astray. When we today throw out our ideas, our assumptions, our words without taking into account who is hearing them and the circumstances, we can be hurtful, dangerous, disrespectful, and unloving. There are times to speak and times to refrain from speaking. Wisdom is knowing the difference, and online communication is even harder than phone or face to face because we cannot get the verbal cues or facial expressions. It is so incredibly easy to offend others with social media or online messaging especially by accident. Our words do matter. For this reason, plenty of people don’t communicate this way (myself included – as I rarely post things on my personal messaging sites and take great pains to compose emails carefully). It is sometimes hard to keep silent when we really want to give a piece of our mind, but love must shape our speech. Speaking the truth in love does not mean we can say whatever we want as long as we think it’s true. It means we stay away from lies and watch opinion without substance, and everything we express is out of consideration for the person who is listening. With social media, it is even harder because what I write today might not even be seen for weeks. I cannot control who reads everything I say. My first concern needs to be for love of others. If in doubt, I should say nothing. I do not want my words to cause confusion or suffering.
Mark 9:30-32
The last section of the Mark passage presents a different situation in which silence rules. Jesus has, again, told his disciples the difficult truth of his pending execution. Again, his disciples just don’t understand what he is saying. You might imagine them thinking, “There Jesus goes again, talking about this strange idea that people are going to do end his life. Seems very paranoid. Who would really kill Jesus?” The silence in this passage that I want to highlight is the disciples not asking Jesus to explain more. They were afraid to push the question so they said nothing. The persisted in ignorance because they did not want to look stupid or were worried Jesus would get upset or they did not know what to think.
This is the most sad thing. Obviously, the disciples had a very difficult time understanding what Jesus said from time to time. His parables were confusing, his teaching difficult, and these predictions did not make sense. But how do you learn from someone? Our lives are all about faith seeking understanding. God gave us minds for a reason. To go forward in ignorance or in the refusal to learn is to refuse to grow.
I had no idea that I would be preaching on this today when I planned out my topics earlier this year, but when I got into this, I was struck by the notion of silence and how that worked in these passages. I wanted to learn more by considering how silence can be helpful and dangerous. I dared to ask questions and to consider things I had not before.
You have heard the proposition, “if a tree falls in the wood, does it make a sound?” What that question is really asking is whether there is silence because no one is listening. The idea of silence can be troubling and can remind us how alone we are. There are sisters and brothers all around the world who are screaming out of their suffering, but very few people are listening. The crisis in Yemen is beyond desperate. The Sudan has been a place of critical need for something better. Myanmar lately is a great concern. It was not long ago that Hong Kong was trying so hard to speak up to the Chinese government and to the world. Haiti has always struggled to be heard with respect from its very beginning. The devastation in Syria did not just go away, but we just don’t hear the voices. Just the other day, 317 schoolgirls were abducted together in Nigeria. They are not silent to us because they are not speaking. If we ourselves had been born anywhere else in this world, especially in any of those places, what would our voices mean? Would anyone be listening to us?
There are times when silence can be a powerful way of speaking, especially in the face of suffering for the good of another. God has given us a pattern of serving our sister or brother, of giving our lives in service without complaint or objection. We also have the obligation to know when it is prudent and loving to speak, especially out of the gospel and the love of Jesus, and when we need to refrain from speaking – when our words can cause suffering. Finally, we also need to recognize that refusing to hear others or pushing the voices of those who suffer out of earshot, is never a faithful response. God has given us ears and communication for a reason. There are times when silence is evidence of victory and times when silence can be the proof of defeat. What my earnest prayer for us all, however, is that God continues to speak to us, even in our experiences of silence, especially when our hearts are quiet, and that we better learn how to walk with those who are suffering. Give us hearts to hear, O Lord.
To God be the glory. Amen.