The Evidence of Silence
“.. If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Matthew 27:40b
In that dark and awful hour of history, surrounded by befuddled disciples, a bewailing mother, and blasphemous men, as Jesus hung on the cross, one of them in what seemed a very logical interpretation of the circumstances, voiced this challenge. Actually it was more a conclusion of a mind that had found evidence that Jesus could not be the Son of God. Jesus was being crucified for claiming to be the Son of God. If He was really the Son of God, then God being all powerful had the ability, and being all good ought to have the willingness to not allow such a victory of evil. If Jesus was the Son of God then he ought to have come down from the cross! I suspect if we could hear all the host of Heaven at the moment, we would have heard a resounding answer, “O foolish man, He cannot come down from the cross because He is the Son of God!” If He were a magician then maybe he would come down from the cross; but He is the redeemer and therefore the cross is His very purpose. The very action that formed the reason for dismissing Him as not being the Son of God was in fact exactly the reason that He was the Son of God. A little while later a very astute centurion intuitively realized this as he exclaimed, “Truly He was the Son of God.” Three days later the disciples’ mind was illuminated, and for twenty centuries now every Christian knows and is glad that He did not come down from the cross. The very silence of God was the evidence of Him working His purposes.
The essence of this question is what often befuddles believers in their lives. It is also the essence of the argument for many in rejecting Jesus. The gist of the argument is “if God really …. Then He ought to …” If God really loved me then He would have not let me go through this horrible situation. If God was really all-powerful, and all-good then He would not allow a Tsunami to take innocent lives. And the list goes on. These questions are real, and often very deep, and cannot be answered glibly, but one thing is for certain that God does not always do what we suppose He ought to do. I do not know why certain things happen in general, and I certainly have a hard time accepting the things that happen to me specifically. There are times in all our lives when all logic screams that knowing the ability and character of God this ought not to happen. Yet, it is in that very silence that God’s purposes are being worked out, and we will have all eternity to find out. Some will claim that this is really a cop-out, an inability to explain God’s character which causes us to hide behind the “hidden purposes of God”. Some will even claim that therefore faith is illogical. I say it is exactly the reverse.
Faith is a trust. It is built and solidified by previous experience, and it is no faith if all it can only trust is its own logical interpretation of the circumstance, and demand that it be the only right interpretation. I heard of a counseling case (and I think it is not so uncommon) of a wife who was beside herself because her husband could not trust her. She has given no reason to her husband to mistrust her, but every time she was late by a few minutes, the husband accused her of infidelity. He could not accept that there was a traffic jam due to an accident, or she ran into a friend, or any other interpretation of the circumstance except his very own. Even though his interpretation may have been the right one, he could not for a moment give consideration to other options that could equally explain her absence. He would not allow his heart to doubt himself. I don’t have to call upon a psychologist to affirm this, but I think I have their vote that given the circumstances it was the husband who had the problem. It is the madman who never doubts himself, and demands that his interpretation is the only right one. When I trust someone, I trust them when I don’t know based on what I do know. At night when I look out and do not see the sun, I do not give up in believing the sun, because I have experienced the morning before, and I can safely trust for it to show up again. I can trust when I do not understand the “why” in my life, if I know the “who” in my life.
Friend, have the circumstances of your life left you confounded? Have you wondered why? Then may I point to you that marker in history, that awful hour when Heaven suffered the blaspheming tongues in silence. In that silence, God was working for a glorious purpose of our redemption. In that moment when God would not save His only Son from the cross, He was making a pathway for reconciliation for undeserving sinners like you and me to a holy and just God. Jesus did not come down from the cross precisely because He WAS the Son of God. I know Him therefore I can trust Him even when I do not understand. May you put your trust in Him.
Danesh Manik
In that dark and awful hour of history, surrounded by befuddled disciples, a bewailing mother, and blasphemous men, as Jesus hung on the cross, one of them in what seemed a very logical interpretation of the circumstances, voiced this challenge. Actually it was more a conclusion of a mind that had found evidence that Jesus could not be the Son of God. Jesus was being crucified for claiming to be the Son of God. If He was really the Son of God, then God being all powerful had the ability, and being all good ought to have the willingness to not allow such a victory of evil. If Jesus was the Son of God then he ought to have come down from the cross! I suspect if we could hear all the host of Heaven at the moment, we would have heard a resounding answer, “O foolish man, He cannot come down from the cross because He is the Son of God!” If He were a magician then maybe he would come down from the cross; but He is the redeemer and therefore the cross is His very purpose. The very action that formed the reason for dismissing Him as not being the Son of God was in fact exactly the reason that He was the Son of God. A little while later a very astute centurion intuitively realized this as he exclaimed, “Truly He was the Son of God.” Three days later the disciples’ mind was illuminated, and for twenty centuries now every Christian knows and is glad that He did not come down from the cross. The very silence of God was the evidence of Him working His purposes.
The essence of this question is what often befuddles believers in their lives. It is also the essence of the argument for many in rejecting Jesus. The gist of the argument is “if God really …. Then He ought to …” If God really loved me then He would have not let me go through this horrible situation. If God was really all-powerful, and all-good then He would not allow a Tsunami to take innocent lives. And the list goes on. These questions are real, and often very deep, and cannot be answered glibly, but one thing is for certain that God does not always do what we suppose He ought to do. I do not know why certain things happen in general, and I certainly have a hard time accepting the things that happen to me specifically. There are times in all our lives when all logic screams that knowing the ability and character of God this ought not to happen. Yet, it is in that very silence that God’s purposes are being worked out, and we will have all eternity to find out. Some will claim that this is really a cop-out, an inability to explain God’s character which causes us to hide behind the “hidden purposes of God”. Some will even claim that therefore faith is illogical. I say it is exactly the reverse.
Faith is a trust. It is built and solidified by previous experience, and it is no faith if all it can only trust is its own logical interpretation of the circumstance, and demand that it be the only right interpretation. I heard of a counseling case (and I think it is not so uncommon) of a wife who was beside herself because her husband could not trust her. She has given no reason to her husband to mistrust her, but every time she was late by a few minutes, the husband accused her of infidelity. He could not accept that there was a traffic jam due to an accident, or she ran into a friend, or any other interpretation of the circumstance except his very own. Even though his interpretation may have been the right one, he could not for a moment give consideration to other options that could equally explain her absence. He would not allow his heart to doubt himself. I don’t have to call upon a psychologist to affirm this, but I think I have their vote that given the circumstances it was the husband who had the problem. It is the madman who never doubts himself, and demands that his interpretation is the only right one. When I trust someone, I trust them when I don’t know based on what I do know. At night when I look out and do not see the sun, I do not give up in believing the sun, because I have experienced the morning before, and I can safely trust for it to show up again. I can trust when I do not understand the “why” in my life, if I know the “who” in my life.
Friend, have the circumstances of your life left you confounded? Have you wondered why? Then may I point to you that marker in history, that awful hour when Heaven suffered the blaspheming tongues in silence. In that silence, God was working for a glorious purpose of our redemption. In that moment when God would not save His only Son from the cross, He was making a pathway for reconciliation for undeserving sinners like you and me to a holy and just God. Jesus did not come down from the cross precisely because He WAS the Son of God. I know Him therefore I can trust Him even when I do not understand. May you put your trust in Him.
Danesh Manik
posted by Danesh Manik | 12:17 PM
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