Morning, April 2, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“And He did not answer him with regard to even a single charge.” — Matthew 27:14

He had never been slow to speak when he could bless the sons of men, but he would not say a single word for himself. “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks,” and never was a silent like him. Was this remarkable silence the index of his perfect self-sacrifice? Did it show that he would not utter a word to stay the slaughter of his sacred person, which he had dedicated as an offering for us? Had he so entirely surrendered himself that he would not interfere in his own behalf, even in the minutest degree, but be bound and slain an unresisting, uncomplaining victim? Was this silence a symbol of the defenselessness of sin? Nothing can be said to whitewash or excuse human guilt; and, therefore, he who bore its whole weight stood speechless before his judge. Is not patient silence the best reply to a dissenting, hostile world? Calm endurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were its martyrs. The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing their blows. Did not the silent Lamb of God furnish us with a grand example of wisdom? Where every word was an occasion for new charges of blasphemy, it was the line of duty to afford no fuel for the flame of sin. The ambiguous and the false, the unworthy and ignoble, will before long overthrow and disprove themselves, and therefore the true can afford to be quiet, and finds silence to be its wisdom. Evidently our Lord, by his silence, furnished a remarkable fulfilment of prophecy. A long defense of himself would have been contrary to Isaiah’s prediction: “Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.” By his quiet he conclusively proved himself to be the true Lamb of God. As such we salute him this morning. Be with us, Jesus, and in the silence of our heart, let us hear the voice of your love.