Mark 15 Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
He answered and said to him, “It is as you say.”
And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, “Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!” But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.
It's very common in the church, and obviously worthwhile, to spend time looking at the words or actions of Christ. We can learn a lot from the things He said and even more from the things that He did. But today I want to look at something a little more elusive. I want to consider the Silence of Christ, particularly His famous Silence before Pilate. We know that it was prophesied beforehand that the Christ would not say a word before His accusers, that He would be like a sheep ready to be shorn. And the Gospel writers document the actual silence and make mention of how unusual and surprising Pilate found this silence. I think that to kind of set the table, even on this story that we have known all of our lives, it is useful to start by looking at Pilate's surprise. This is the surprise of a man who was a professional judge. He had had probably thousands of men accused before him. And unlike our courts where the judge is usually just a sort of referee, the decision lay solely in Pilate's hands. I am sure the he had heard everything that a defendant could say. He had surely heard the cleverest defenses, as well as the stupidest. I don't doubt that he had had defendants who offered him things for judgment in their favor, he had surely had defendants who were defiant and challenged his authority, particularly among the stubborn and frequently rebellious Jews. He had heard those who were accused deny the charges, protest their innocence and he had heard them drag out the dirty laundry of the accusers. He had heard no doubt masterpieces of Greek logic or Roman jurisprudence and he had heard strings of irrelevant non-sequiturs fit only for Judge Judy. I don't doubt that he had also had defendants who couldn't think of a thing to say, who were silent from fear, or silent from mental incapacity, or silent from guilt, maybe even silent defiantly. So, what was so unusual about Jesus' silence that it shocked this man?
The first thing to notice is that Jesus and Pilate exchanged quite a few words despite the famous silence. Let's look at their conversation in John 18 and 19.
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die. Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
Whatever else Jesus' words meant to Pilate they certainly convinced him that Jesus was capable of defending himself. By this point in the conversation it must have been clear to Pilate that Christ understood the situation that He was in, probably more clearly than anyone around Him. The Jews accuse Jesus of being a king and He leaps into the impossibly subtle position of defending His royalty and yet at the same time showing that His kingship is not harmful to Caesar but rather the only hope of Roman civilization and the last twenty centuries have certainly vindicated Him. Like His earlier comment about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, here He vindicates His reign, distinguishing and setting His kingdom not simply apart from all earthly kingdoms but far above, He is not merely a True King but Truth is His Kingdom. And if we would be His subjects we must in all times of trouble, such as we are now in and see coming quickly, hold fast to this principle that His kingdom cannot be defended by us, that His kingdom does not come with observation and cannot be advanced by our efforts then or now or ever. Truth needs no defenders but is well able to make His case Himself, and lies are indefensible so in His kingdom there is simply no place for defense and nothing and noone for us to justify. But all power and authority in this world always finds His light entering their darkness utterly incomprehensible and must say with Pilate, "What is truth?"
And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.“But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.” Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!” Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Pilate has become convinced of Jesus innocence, but his relationship with the Jews is forcing him into a very unpleasant situation. From what we know of his history, Pilate has had both problems and successes governing the Jews. He had brought Roman military items, shields into Jerusalem, probably into the Praetorium, with writing on them declaring Caesar's divinity and caused a huge uproar among the monotheistic Jews that probably resulted in his being rebuked by His superiors, perhaps even the Emperor Tiberius. There is also evidence that Pilate and the priests had been able to cooperate to complete some fairly significant civic improvement projects. So Pilate has much to lose if he can't work this out with the Jewish leaders. The last thing that we know about Pilate's life with any certainty is that some years after this he was called to Rome to explain some of his failures with the Jews, we don't know how it turned out for him but his situation was rather precarious and he certainly knew it. And yet..and yet, they say that Jesus claims divine origins and the strange demeanor of the man makes this claim very unsettling to Pilate. Blasphemy was an incredibly serious charge for the Jews, deadly serious not just for the accused but depending on how he handles it possibly deadly serious for Pilate and his entire command, the entire jewish world on that day was gathered within Jerusalem if they rose up against him and this charge of blasphemy certainly carried that potential, Pilate and his men would be swarmed and dead before any other Roman ever heard. On the other hand, Pilate clearly finds the claim to be...somewhat believable. And this is a hard point for me to enter into imaginatively. I can't really imagine encountering a man who claims to be God and taking his claim seriously. It would be easier for me to entertain a claim to be Elvis, or Napoleon, or a space alien. Because the only kinds of people that I can imagine making that claim are not serious people. They make claims that they don't understand, they are madmen and megalomaniacs. Pilate, the veteran soldier, the experienced judge and governor and politician, this man deeply steeped in the wisdom of this world, saw a serious man before him and could not dismiss the possibility that this man was God. And this is the crucial moment. The charge against Jesus in the last analysis is about His alleged claim to be divine, a claim that Pilate has not heard him make and that the Jews I suspect found it hard to substantiate. Pilate's question, "Where are you from?" is perhaps the greatest off ramp ever offered. All Jesus has to do to be found innocent is to claim Nazareth as His origin. There is certainly plenty of ambiguity to take advantage of in the question. All He needs to do is claim a normal, non-divine origin and this charge will be impossible to press against Him. And it is at this point, that the shocking silence kicks in. Since the jews made the charge out of Jesus’ hearing, remember their lawkeeping wouldn't let them enter the Roman judgment hall, since Jesus didn’t hear the charge Pilate may have hoped that this rather nonspecific question might elicit a nonincriminating answer from Jesus, how often do we answer the question “Where are you from?” With little or no thought? Pilate doesn't confront Him directly with a question such as "Are you the Son of God?" like he did earlier with the question about being a king, possibly because he has learned that Jesus will witness to the truth if asked directly, and yet there is something subtle and elusive almost evasive about Jesus that makes Pilate think, hope even, that if given sufficient cover, sufficient ambiguity He might be willing to let the whole thing slide until another day. He might let them all off the hook. And it is here that Jesus is supremely stubborn. He doesn't make the smart play, but He doesn't give Pilate anything to substantiate the charge either. To Pilate this must have seemed supremely defiant, to be offered this olive branch that might save them all, perhaps in Pilate's mind just keeping things from coming to a head today might be sufficient for Jesus and the Jewish leaders and the Romans to accommodate one another. If the crisis will just pass with no fireworks and no crosses then maybe the whole lot of them can work this out to everyone's advantage. And when Pilate tries to press Jesus into taking some sort of accomodative solution, to giving him something to work with by reminding him that His life depends on Pilate's decision, Jesus rather than defending Himself makes a very obscure comment about the sources of Pilate's authority and their own liability in this matter, which is still rather mysterious and must have been utterly unhelpful to Pilate. Even when He speaks it is as if He is silent because His answers seem to be only tangentially connected to the question and are barely comprehensible at all. There is nothing that pisses a judge off like mystery. The Law is the place for everything to be plain and unambiguous and impersonal, but now the defendant is judging not merely the judge but the whole state that stands behind Pilate and ultimately the whole world order on which he stands.
From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!”Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!” Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.” ’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
And so, Jesus silence brought about His death. At the moment when He was arrested His crucifixion must have seemed like the most unlikely outcome. When I wrote about Judas a few Easters ago I said that I don't think he believed it would go the way that it actually did and I still hold to that. The affairs of men just don't usually turn out with great and famous men, with Messiahs, dying on crosses. All of Jesus actions throughout that Friday morning, especially His silence at the critical moment, sovereignly overruled the normal course of events to break the cycle of the Old World and bring an end to it so that a New Creation could be born. So we have looked into His silence a fair bit but still haven't really explained it. But there is another silence here that I think is significant. The Silence of the Evangelists. We know what everyone said and did on Good Friday, almost minute by minute at a level of detail that can barely be matched for current events in the age of the ubiquitous cellphone camera. We know quite abit about the events of Easter Sunday. But between them is the Day of Rest, the only day fully spent in the tomb, a day about which we know nothing. We can confess with faith that, "He descended into Hell." but we don't know what He did that day. We don't know where the disciples were, what Peter did after he went out and wept bitterly, we don't know what Mary and John did after the Lord declared them Mother and Son, we have no idea what Pilate did, or what the Jews did. One thing that we can see is the rush to complete all things before the Sabbath, before silence and rest covers all. And we can only comment on the Silence of the Evangelists indirectly, precisely because it is not in the texts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John can't comment on their own silence, and where those four must remain silent who is sufficient to speak? But if God Himself has commented by the way the world changed that day then we can stop and look and take notice.
In a certain sense, that was the last Sabbath. The last Sabbath of the Old Creation, the last Jewish Sabbath and though Judaism survived for another 40 years, approximately, after that day it was a ghost walking in the daylight. Those of you who know our friend, Ken Fogarty or any Seventh Day Adventist, may have heard them say that the 7th day is still the Sabbath because God never changed it. I believe those are the words that they use, though it has been awhile. And I want to say this to the Seventh Day Adventists and to all who do not go that far but erroneously believe that Sunday is The Christian Sabbath. Immediately after the Lord rose, in Acts and all of the Epistles, we find this new thing, the Lord's Day and we find no trace of the Church paying the least attention to the Sabbath. It is on The Lord's Day that we are told they meet. It is on The Lord's Day that John has his visions on Patmos. And the first great doctrinal controversy after the apostolic age centers on the Great question of whether Easter should be celebrated based on the timing of Passover or should always be celebrated on the Lord's Day. The resolution of this question, the creation of the unique "movable feast" fixed to no date but that wanders from month to month always seeking its Sunday is the best answer the early church can give. There is symbolism in the Lord's Resurrection which goes even more to its heart than its connections to Passover, its connections to Creation. The silence about the seventh day of Passion Week speaks the greatest of volumes. The only thing we can say about it is that on the Seventh Day, He the Lord Jesus Christ, rested. And the mystery hidden in Genesis 1, became plain. Because after the seventh day, after the Sabbath, comes an eighth day completely unheralded, a new week, for God new works, for us new freedom, the release from the chains of causality with which our pasts bind us. The Old things are done, the Old Covenant fulfilled, the Old World obsolete, Judaism and the Law left behind. Thus is why we are here on Sunday, because it is NOT the Sabbath. We are not here to rest. We are here because our old lives are over, our old works, old righteousness and old sins, are all left behind. The Sabbath, the conclusion of Christ's work on the sixth day and His rest on the seventh, makes us separate from our old lives, makes us Holy from our righteousness, works, sin, by faith apart from our Law. And we are free, and we are called to begin New Things. To live in a New World, a New Creation on this Eighth Day of the week.
Why then was Jesus silent before Pilate? He had already said everything that needed to be said. His words are powerful to accomplish His purposes and He does not speak except to accomplish those purposes. He had assured His crucifixion and had no more to say. He would speak again on the Cross, but no more to the powers of this old world. It is significant than from the Cross He spoke to Mary and John and the thief beside Him and His Father but not to the Jews not to the Roman soldiers. And after His resurrection there is no record of Him interacting with the Old World. He spoke no more of works or of any righteousness except the righteousness He gives to us. Of the world and the life that came before we can only agree with Him that It is finished. R
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