unlearning the art of self-defence

I read Pilate’s part in the Sunday evening liturgy of the palms. That dialogue led me to reflect on Jesus’ amazing silence (Mk 15:5). Jesus responded calmly to his human judges (chief priest, governor, even tetrarch) but steadfastly refused to react to the streams of prosecutors and so-called witnesses. Even the seasoned Pilate was “impressed, really impressed” (The Message).

This behavior didn’t merely fulfill the pattern predicted by the prophet, though that was surely on the mind of Jesus. Isaiah 53:7 recalls the silence of the Hezekiah’s people on Jerusalem's wall before the messenger of Assyria’s king in 36:21. Isaiah elsewhere associates silence with the shame and suffering, whether just or unjust, as well as with self-restraint on the part of God or his spokesperson.

Jesus’ silence wasn’t merely passive. It was one more way of stepping toward his destiny and the deliverance of his people. By no means innocent like Jesus, I’m thankful his self-giving addresses that stark difference. By his grace, I may even learn to not so readily defend myself, and instead to entrust all to the just Judge.

Especially when he presents opportunities to share in his hardship: aligning with God’s character and cause this day, glad to belong to the Father and following the Spirit. Whatever the price, he is the prize. His table may be bare tonight - an altar stripped and washed in the Maundy Thursday tradition. But his story (and so ours) is far from over.

of rants and indifference - which is worse?

Recent consideration of the long and bumpy road of Christian theological controversy has led me to wonder if the rants against the faith that I occasionally hear are an indication of troubled relationships with God rather than no relationship at all. It’s not just charitable thinking: The psalms and other scriptures are peppered with the honest, angry and bitter disappointments of sinners-becoming-saints, and even dissent and despair. Even the devil’s contempt and rage are duly noted. Such is the Bible’s mirror.

Utter indifference is a greater enemy – the malaise that won’t rise to the trouble of a cure, the relationship not valuable enough to reconcile, the sin not worth setting right by repentance. Snapping out of spiritual boredom may happen when one addresses pointed complaints to the Judge. At least the dialogue is restarted, and he is known for persuasive acts of sheer kindness.