5th Thursday of Lent (March 21). He did not open his mouth

Prepare to Listen.  Like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
 
Prayerfully Read Isaiah 53:7-9
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
   yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
   and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
   so he did not open his mouth.
8By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
   Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
   stricken for the transgression of my people.
9They made his grave with the wicked
   and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
   and there was no deceit in his mouth.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Behold the Lamb of God.  What do you see about him in this reading?
 
These verses are a scene from the playbook of Jesus’ trial and death.  After an active ministry of healing and teaching, after his arrest Jesus was remarkably silent and passive.  His trial was “spectacular betrayals of genuine justice.”[1]  Things were done to him, lies said about him but “he did not open his mouth.”  He was treated in death the same way he was treated in life—utterly guilty.  Yet “like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  In verse 6 ‘we’ are described as being like sheep who have gone astray.  The Messiah too is like a sheep, but unlike us he was vulnerable, innocent, accepting, even of a murderous and cruel death, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.”  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
 
The vicious cycle of sin and disobedience was broken.  But not as is the way of the world.  We think we can defeat our enemy, overcome wrongdoing with force and violence and vigorous self-assertion.  And all that does is escalate violence and prompt our enemy to respond in kind.  The power of Jesus is the very opposite of what we think power ought to be.  Jesus’ silent acceptance of violence done to him was the power that changed the world for good.  He did not open his mouth and yet we heard him.
 
Once again, the way of Jesus is bewildering, a mystery.  How can you be more like Jesus, living his way of power that rejects violence in all its forms?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus I’ll never understand your way because it is so contrary to the way of the world that I’m used to.  Give me the courage to be more like you and less like the world around me.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Follow the silent but powerful One.
[1] Brueggemann, Walter.  Isaiah 40-66.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 1998, p. 147.