Morning, April 2
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Matthew 27:14
"He answered him to never a word."
Matthew 27:14
He had never been slow of speech when he could bless the sons of men,
but he would not say a single word for himself. "Never man spake like
this man," and never man was silent like him. Was this singular 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 unstruggling, uncomplaining victim?
Was this silence a type of the defencelessness of sin? Nothing can be
said in palliation or excuse of human guilt; and, therefore, he who
bore its whole weight stood speechless before his judge. Is not patient
silence the best reply to a gainsaying 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 occasion for new blasphemy, it
was the line of duty to afford no fuel for the flame of sin. The
ambiguous and the false, the unworthy and mean, will ere long overthrow
and confute 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 defence of
himself would have been contrary to Isaiah's prediction: "He is led as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so
he openeth not 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
thy love.