Silence of Several Kinds

When the Lord stands before Pilate, He is silent. But what kind of a silence is this. Silence, we know from experience, differs according to kind.

There is the silence of bitter hostility--the silence of adversaries, who hold their peace lest, if they were to speak, they would come to blows. When this kind of silence envelopes a household, love can no longer live there, for there is no room. No, the silence fills every corner, every crack in the flooring, and every angle of every eave. Love needs room, and this silence gives it none. It is not silence by nature, but din. It may be silent, but it will eventually burst into sound. It is pressure longing for release. Given time, it will explode.

I have some experience with this silence. As a child, it was not much present in my house—save but from time to time, but I knew households of friends upon which it had settled like a wet blanket. They were kingdoms of blame, where expectations were never met, and needs were daily disregarded.

This was not the silence of the Lord Jesus before Pilate. No, that silence is "the still, small voice." You know the one—manifest not in fire, nor wind, nor the shaking of the earth.

It is not the silence of sorrow. That is a silence that would speak, but, somehow, can never find the words. It is not a silence, like that hostile silence, which is waiting to break into sound. No, it retreats further and further away from expression, until it sinks to the lowest point of despair. Despair no longer wants to speak. It is grievance that no longer wants to be heard. It wants only to sit alone, neglected and disregarded.

So, what is this silence before Pilate? What is this still, small voice? It is the silence of God. The closest thing we have to it in our experience is the silence of nature, for nature has learned it from her Master. Anyone who has walked in the forest has heard it. Anyone who has lain in the warm sunshine on a beach has experienced it. It is the presence of truth. It is a silence that is full of love. It is also full of meaning. No one can doubt its meaning, because no one can escape its peace.