The silent lamb

 The Silent Lamb

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

ISAIAH 53.7

The high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus remained silent.

MATTHEW 26.62-63

as anyone ever accused you of doing something you didn’t do? If so, what did you do? If you’re like most people, you probably spoke up and defended yourself, telling everyone you were innocent. When someone says we did something wrong that we didn’t do, we want people to know the truth.

But it is interesting to see how Jesus responded when he was in this situation. Even though people were lying about what he had said and done, and even though they were ready to kill him based on those false charges, Jesus didn’t speak up to defend himself. He stayed silent.

What do we learn from the example of Jesus? Jesus shows us that we don’t always have to defend ourselves or make sure we set the record straight about what we have and haven’t done. We can be content that “God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment” (1Pet 2.19).

But more important, we learn that when we are not innocent — when we have done something wrong and feel deep shame — we don’t have to live under that burden of shame. You see, when Jesus took our sin on himself, he endured all the punishment of that sin. And shame is a part of punishment. Jesus was willing to take on our sin as well as our shame, so we don’t have to bear the blame or the shame.