"And the chief priests accused Him of many things; but He answered nothing. And Pilate asked Him again, saying, 'Answerest thou nothing ? Behold, how many things they witness against thee.' But Jesus again answered nothing; so that Pilate marveled" (Mk. 15:3-5).
"They also that seek after my life lay snares for Me:and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs" (Ps. 38:12-14).
"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth:He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth" (Isa. 53:7).
Suffering as none upon earth ever suffered, our precious Saviour never protested! Misunderstood by those He loved, and whom He came to bless and to save, calumny and shame were heaped upon Him! Devil-inspired accusations were made against Him, yet never a demand that He be heard to their rebuke and clearance of Himself. He did not "cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets." "He was despised:" a man usually has gotten very low when his fellow-men despise Him. We resent it when men hate us and say ugly things about us, even though we sometimes give them cause. He was hated "without a cause," yet "He opened not His mouth." He "made Himself of no reputation:" false witnesses rose up against Him:they laid to His charge "things that He knew not," but "He answered nothing"-and "Pilate marveled." He was "brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth."
In the 26th chap, of Matthew, vers. 67 and 68, we have this amazing record:"Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him; and others smote Him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us thou Christ. Who is he that smote Thee?" They spat in the face of Him who was "fairer than the children of men." They vented their passionate hatred by smiting Him in the face, so that "His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." Bitter mockery came from their mouths as from open sepulchres full of corruption. But "He opened not his mouth"-not even in rebuke! "He gave his back to the smiters" of the brutal Roman soldiery, and "his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." They stripped Him of His garments, dividing them among themselves, exposing Him to open shame-yet He opened not His mouth-He despised the shame that man cast upon Him, and He endured the cross where He bore our sins!
Then He could say, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do;" and, "I have overcome the world"-victor He came over every trial, and the secret of it all was this:"I came not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me"-He was wholly surrendered to the Father's will. "The archers sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him and hated Him, but his bow abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."
The passions of evil men vented their fury upon the unresisting coverings of the Tabernacle, and sadly tore at them, but nothing within was ever disturbed."
"Oh, 'tis all wonderful, wonderful!
And blessed be His Name."
We may notice that angels were always near, ever ready to minister unto Him; and the Holy Spirit's word, when He bringeth in the First begotten into the world, is, "Let all the angels of God worship Him!"
O reader, how do we measure up to Him, our holy pattern? What a mess we make when we seek to establish our righteousness before our fellow-men; do we not? And if we speak ill of a brother, how humiliated and defeated we are when, as an answer, he opens not his mouth!
Let us remember that angels are beholding us too:for "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
Oh, for well-garrisoned hearts, and God-kept lips. M. S. Gallagher