But He Opened Not His Mouth

Accusations after accusations against Him, but He did not open His mouth. Surrounded by enemies who desired Him dead, but He did not open His mouth; scourged beyond facial recognition, broken bones and out of joints bones, but He did not open His mouth. His inner strength secured by the ultimate purpose did not fail Him. Tempted by the devil in His hardest hour on earth, but He did not open His mouth, just a prayer to His heavenly Father, releasing forgiveness to those who were nailing Him to the cross, an utterance heard by all. Salvation sprung forth from that prayer and the centurion and his soldiers confessed that YAHSHUA is the Son of God. Under severe pain while they scourged Him over six hundred times, but He remained calm and did not open his mouth. No, the Son of God did not suffer as God, but as a human, with all the extension of pain we suffer. He could never suffer as God, for He is sinless and sin has no hold on Him. He was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief; He was despised, rejected by man, but did not claim His right of being God. That was the time for Him to fulfill the plan of salvation planned by God and fulfilled by Him to all who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated by the Spirit to obedience to YAHSHUA the Messiah and to be sprinkled with [His] blood (I Peter 1:2).

YAHSHUA demonstrated His submission by not opening His mouth during His six unfair trials is a testimony of His perfect and complete obedience “to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!” Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ YAHSHUA, Who although being essentially one with God, and in the form of God [possessing the fulness  of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a  thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself so as to assume the guise of a servant, in that He became like men and was born a human being (Phi. 2:5-7). Such a sacrifice He performed to save sinners unworthy of Him! Who am I Lord, and what is my house (asked David) that You have brought me this far? (2 Sam.7:17); and what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? (Ps. 8:4). A humble man, You O Lord will not abandon. YAHSHUA was spat on, they pluck out hair from His beard and used abusive words to humiliate Him, for men had only hatred for Him. However, when the time came, He opened not His mouth to defend Himself. His silence spoke millions of words, but no one heard. His silence, a gesture that indicated Whom He was, communicated with His Father, agreeing to go through the plan to save mankind. His silence spoke louder than the scream of the crowd; for it rested on Him the peace and the certainty of the fulfillment of prophecy for that time through Him. Surrounded by evil and angry men and a chaotic crowd, YAHSHUA stayed tuned with the Father whose plan was to reconciliate men to Himself. No one noticed the extent of His suffering in the agony of His soul. Only His Father knew, but it was His will for Him to suffer; it was the will of the Father to bruise Him and to put Him to grief and make Him sick (Isaiah 53:10a). And yet, He didn’t open His mouth. At His friend, Lazarus’ funeral, when there were only two weeks left for His own, He felt discomforted and sighed repletely. He knew what was coming next for Him. John reports that He sighing repeatedly and deeply disquieted, approached the tomb. (John 11:38). The thought of His soon coming suffering weighted down on Him. While going to the tomb, again sighing repeatedly and deeply, disquieted, YAHSHUA approached the tomb. It was a cave and a boulder lay against it (John 11:38). No one knew what was in the Savior’s heart. His heart hurt for the people there who were sobbing for Lazarus hopelessly. But there stood One Who could give them hope, if only they would believe in Him! In just a few days He Himself would become the Lamb of God on the altar of His ultimate sacrifice to save men from hopelessness and hell.