He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7).
One of the most striking examples of our Lord's silence was an occasion on which his opponents, unable to overturn his logic, resorted to a vicious ad hominem attack. “Well," they said, "(at least) we're not born of fornication" (John 8:41), with the implication that he was. (News travels fast in a small town. Everyone knew that Mary was pregnant when she married Joseph and assumed that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock.)
Had I been Jesus I would have launched into a lengthy explanation of the Virgin Birth, yet, "He opened not his mouth," in that he did not offer a word of personal defense.
This is meekness—strength under control. Jesus knew that he was God's dearly beloved son and cared not a fig for what others thought of him.
George MacDonald underscores this robust virtue in his novel, Malcolm, on an occasion in which his protagonist was the victim of a vicious slander.
"Well, Mem (said Malcolm), what would you have me do? I can’t send my old daddy around the town with his pipes to proclaim that I’m not the man. I’m thinking I’ll just have to leave the place.”
“Would you send your daddy round with the pipes to say that you were the man? You might as well do the one as the other. Many a better man has been called worse, and folk soon forget that ever the lie was said. No, no; never run from a lie. And never say, neither, that you didn’t do the thing, except it be laid straight to your face. Let a lie lay in the dirt. If you pick it up, the dirt’ll stick to you, even if you fling the lie over the dike at the end of the world. No, no! Let a lie lay as you would the devil’s tail!”...
“What should I do then, mem?”
“Do? Who said you was to do anything?. The best doing is to stand still. Let the wave go over you without ducking.”
"But there must be some judgment on lying.”
“The worst wish I have for any backbiter is that he may live to be affronted with himself. After that he’ll be good enough company for me. Go your way, laddie; say your prayers, and hold up your head. Who wouldn’t rather be accused of all the sins of the Commandments than to be guilty of one of them?”
And Malcolm did hold up his head as he walked away.
David Roper
5.20.21
