The Silent Lamb of God

Mark 15:3-5
Gary Wassermann | Sunday, September 19, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Gary Wassermann

This is the silent Lamb of God, and the text ends with Pilate being amazed. And truly this is an amazing scene.  Jesus is silent as accusations are hurled against him.

To set the scene, this is the first of Jesus’ two appearances before Pilate.  The Jewish court has already condemned him, but they did not have the legal authority to put him to death, so they brought him to Pilate, as we have heard about in the last few weeks.  The Jews were not looking for a judge, but for an executioner.  When Pilate initially asked what the charges were, they tried to impugn him for not rubber-stamping their decision.  When the chief priests see that that doesn’t work, they begin to accuse Jesus, and soon their dignified façade falls, and in an envious rage they throw anything they can think of at Jesus to get him executed.  Luke 23:2 records some of the “many things” they accuse him of.  They say, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.”  The charge of claiming to be king was dealt with last week, along with his general rejection.  They went on.  “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

Pilate was surely amazed because of the contrast that he saw between this man standing before him, and the many other accused people he had seen.  As a rule, they were vocal and excited in defending themselves.  But equally as much, what a contrast between the violent agitator the chief priests virulently portrayed Jesus as, and the placid, quiet man Pilate saw with his own eyes.  No wonder Pilate was amazed.  And this was not just this one time that Jesus was silent, but through that Friday morning Jesus was silent before accusers.  He was silent before Caiaphas in Mark 14:60–61, silent before Pilate in this passage, silent before Herod in Luke 23:9, and silent again before Pilate in John 19:9.

The question we must ask is, why did Jesus remain silent?  We know he was sinless, so his was not the silence of guilt.  Why then did he remain silent?  There are, I believe, three dynamics at work here all at the same time.  The first reason he remained silent is that Jesus had resigned himself to death in place of his people, according to his Father’s will as revealed in the Scriptures.  We will look at that further under the heading “The Lamb of God.”  The second reason Jesus remained silent is that he entrusted himself to his Father for justice.  So the second heading is “The Model of Patience.”  The third reason Jesus remained silent is that Pilate did not deserve an answer.  There was no legal requirement for Jesus to answer, and Pilate could see for himself that Jesus was innocent as charged.  The third heading is “The Demand for a Verdict.”

The Lamb of God

Jesus knew why he had come into the world.  He had come to bear away the sins of his people through his death.  He had come to give his life as a ransom for many, and he knew that his hour had now come.

He came not to be famous, but to die. And so in his life leading up to this point, he had not sought to become a public figure as his brothers expected.  He was not showy or ostentatious.  Isaiah prophesied this in Isaiah 42:1–2: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.  He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.” This was the course of his life throughout his ministry.

As he now came to the day of his death, he came as the Lamb of God, silently, in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

Lambs were a familiar part of the life of Israel.  The father of the nation, Jacob, himself was a shepherd, as were his sons after him.  The first king of the first great dynasty of Israel, King David, had also been a shepherd.  So God chose sheep to instruct his people in their earlier days about how he would redeem them.  In the law of Moses, God commanded bulls and goats and sheep to be used as sacrifices to atone for sin.  In history, animal sacrifice came first, and Jesus came second, but in God’s pattern it was the other way around.  The earthly tabernacle was patterned after the heavenly tabernacle.  Likewise, God had planned in eternity past to send his Son to die in the place of sinners, and he patterned the sacrifice of sheep after the death his Son would die.

Let’s look at the pattern God gave by considering what he commanded for the sin offering in Leviticus 4.  In verses 32–33 he says, “If [the offerer] brings a lamb as his sin offering, he is to bring a female without defect.  He is to lay his hands on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.”

I want to call your attention to two things in this requirement that show us something important about Jesus Christ.  First, this lamb was to be without defect.  That stands for moral perfection—the moral perfection that is the requirement to bear the sins of another before the holy God.  God will not accept payment on behalf of another from one who is himself in debt.  Jesus was morally perfect.  He challenged his enemies in John 8:46, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?”  He said shortly before that in John 8:29, “I always do what pleases [my Father],” and later in John 14:31, “I love the Father and . . . I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”  Pilate agreed that Jesus had done nothing wrong.  So we read in 1 Peter 1:19, “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  Christ, and Christ alone, is qualified to save sinners.

The second thing we read about the sin offering is that the guilty person who brings the lamb was to lay his hand on the lamb’s head before slaughtering it.  By laying his hands on the lamb’s head, he signified that he was transferring his guilt onto that lamb.  The lamb took his guilt and died as if it had been guilty.  Of course, neither lambs nor bulls nor goats could take away sin.  They were God’s sacramental sign showing how his Son would take our sins upon himself.  When he took our guilt on himself, he became guilty by imputation.  And as he bore our guilt before God, he could not speak and object to God’s righteous judgment.

Jesus was not widely known or frequently identified as the Lamb of God during his life on earth, but there is one man who twice identified Jesus that way.  John the Baptist said in John 1:29, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  A few verses later in John 3:36, we read that John said essentially the same thing when he saw Jesus the next day.

It is most significant that John the Baptist should be the one to say this.  John the Baptist was the great preacher of repentance.  He declared the coming of the kingdom of God, and he declared the coming of God’s wrath.  God was coming not only to those who believe in him, but to all people, whether you believe in him or not.  He would come to those who had lived carelessly and those who had sinned grievously.  And no man would have standing before God because of his family lineage or who his parents were.  Whoever did not produce good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Many who heard John knew the truth of what he said.  His words struck their hearts, and they were stricken with conviction and guilt. They knew their guilt before God.  They grieved over how they had lived their lives.  So they came to be baptized by John.  They cried out, “What should we do?” and they listened to what he said.  John gave practical counsel to soldiers and tax collectors to show them how they should live.  But he also knew that moral reformation required something more.  So when he saw Jesus walking by, he lifted up his hand and pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John was sent to be the forerunner of the Messiah, and as his relative and close associate he knew more about Jesus than most at that point.  He knew him as a righteous and holy man, a man of wisdom and insight and compassion.  So John could have presented Jesus to the crowd in many ways.

He could have said, “Look, the great example for how you are to live! You were asking: What should we do?”  Surely the people then needed an example just as much as people do today.  In all likelihood, this encounter with Jesus occurred just after Jesus returned from fasting for forty days and successfully resisting all the devil’s temptations.  What better example for sinners could there be?  “How shall we live?”  “Watch him.  Live like him.  He is flesh and blood too, and he is showing you how to live.”  But that was not their greatest need, nor is it the greatest need of our times.

John could likewise have said, “Look, the teacher of heavenly truth!”  Surely John had been impressed with Jesus’ wisdom.  Jesus went morning by morning before his Father, and his ears were opened like one being taught. Jesus had wisdom to teach that no man ever did, because Jesus had come from the Father.  But a teacher was not their first need, and nor is it ours.

Penitent sinners need a sin-bearer.  We may repent, but that in itself does not actually solve anything before God.  What shall we do about our sin?  Without a sin-bearer, repentance itself will grow weary and fall.  The creation, growth, and purity of repentance is bound to the sin-bearer.

This is the one great need for those who are burdened and lamenting.  “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  See him now in our passage standing before Pilate, silent, being led like a lamb ready to be slaughtered, ready to be crucified, ready to be sacrificed for our sins.  What is he doing there?  He is bearing sin, and he will bear it away to the cross.

Now when a person says, “Look!” it is because he himself sees something clearly and he wants you to see it too.  John said, “Look, the Lamb of God,” because he saw for himself clearly and with conviction that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  This was not just head knowledge, but heart conviction, a personal acquaintance, a personal realization of who Jesus was.  No one can truly know hope nor comfort outside of the great atoning sacrifice.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  I pray that everyone here will have a clear knowledge of Christ as the sin-bearing Lamb of God.  Many here have been taught the Holy Scriptures from infancy and you know and you have been taught who Jesus is and what he has done.  But the truths taught in the Scripture must be taught afresh by the Holy Spirit unto the heart so that we may know them personally and with conviction.

The Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8 was reading Isaiah 53:7–8—the passage that prophesies that Jesus will be silent, like a sheep being led to the slaughter—when the Holy Spirit directed Philip to go up to him.  Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.  When the eunuch was introduced to the Lamb of God, he was changed. Now he knew him as the Lamb of God.  He wanted to be baptized, and baptized he was. You see, the Lamb of God is not for Jews only, but for the whole world, for all who will trust in him—for the world that is at enmity with God.

But no matter how great your sin, the Lamb of God has come to bear your sin away.  Look to the Lamb of God and come to the Father, bringing this Lamb to him for your sins.  The Father will always accept him because he is the Lamb of God.  He will then be your theme in everlasting glory.  In the book of Revelation, thirty times in the New International Version, Jesus is called the Lamb.  The people of God cry, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5:12).  See him and join in this song.  Worthy is the Lamb!

The Model of Patience

The second reason Jesus remained silent is that he submitted himself to the Father.  First Peter 2:23 refers back to this and states this clearly: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

For Jesus, this was not a one-time act of heroic submission.  This was the pattern of his life.  In John 8:48, the Jews he was speaking to said, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”  The Jews hated the Samaritans, so for them to say he is a Samaritan was an expression of deepest utter contempt.  But it was basically a personal insult against him as a man, and he did not respond to it at all.  On the other hand, their charge that he was demon-possessed addressed the authority, the power, and the nature of his words and work, and that he did respond to.  “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.”  He then went on to state the same principle he carried with him at his trial.  “I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.”

I said earlier that our greatest need is not for an example.  Nevertheless, Jesus set an example for us by his silent patience.  The passage in 1 Peter 2 that I quoted from earlier makes this explicit.  First Pet 2:21 says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

The way of the world is completely opposite.  I recently saw an Internet meme that said, “If you can’t say something nice, say something witty and devastating.”  That is what is exalted and admired in the world.  Defend yourself and demolish your opponent.

This is true in our society particularly.  Our society has become increasingly polarized over the last several decades.  In the realm of political and social issues, there have always been divisions, but increasingly people see those who disagree with them as enemies to be destroyed.  A Christian does not view people that way.  (GMW) A Christian does not view others as enemies to be destroyed, but as souls to be saved.

Now, the culture around us is changing, but human nature does not change.  The sinful flesh is in all of us.  Children are quick to yell or shriek at the top of their lungs when they think their sibling has done them wrong.  Adults also can get heated up and lash back in anger.  Some people excuse it by saying, “That’s just the way I am.”  The saying is, “I’m Irish.”  And some people today seem to exaggerate how Irish they are.

James describes the tongue as a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark” (James 3:5).  We have seen a lot of forest fires, and they are an illustration of the evil of lashing out in speech.  James 3:6 says, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.  It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”  Only by living by the Spirit can we tame the tongue.

Proverbs 27:3 says, “Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but provocation by a fool is heavier than both.”  But the Holy Spirit has given us this example of Jesus Christ to help us.  Hebrews 12:3 says, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men,”—such as he faced from these chief priests—“so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  Sometimes the opposition and abuse may come in the form of being called “bigot,” “homophobe,” “oppressor,” “hater.”  These are the words we hear today.  But fix your eyes on Jesus, for so they treated him.

As I said before, human nature does not change.  Jesus was silent, but sinful man shifts the blame.  Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and he shifted the blame—to his wife and to the God who gave him his wife.  We are all descended from Adam, and that is what comes naturally.  Blame the circumstances.  Blame our upbringing.  Blame the equipment.  Blame anyone.  It comes naturally as a reflex without thought.  It is only through the miracle of regeneration that a man can say, “I am the sinner,” and repent truly.

And Jesus Christ is an example not just for his silence, but for his godly silence.  There are three other kinds of silence I want to contrast this with.

First, of course, his was not a guilty silence.  There is nothing noble about saying nothing because your guilty conscience leaves you with nothing to say.  The man in Matthew 22 who came to the wedding banquet without wedding clothes is an example of that.  When the king confronted him, the man was speechless, and the king had him cast out.  So Peter says in 1 Peter 2:20, “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?”

Second, Jesus was not silent because of weakness, as we sometimes are.  In other words, there are times we may be silent under hostility because we doubt that we could win in a verbal sparring match.  It is the calculation of the king in Luke 14:31, where Jesus illustrates counting the cost.  The king sees that he has the smaller army, so rather than going to battle, he seeks terms of peace.  The silence of weakness is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not noble either, and that is not what Jesus was doing here.  Jesus was not at a loss for words, and he was not intimidated by his opponents.

For example, when the teachers of the law brought a woman caught in adultery in John 8, Jesus had a response that shut them all up and made them leave one by one. And in Mark 12, various adversaries came to Jesus in succession with questions and challenges designed entrap and impugn Jesus.  Jesus had an answer for every one of them.  And his answers so decisively settled the issue that his opponents had no comeback.  Mark 12:34 says “And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

So in his trial, Jesus could have come up with a response that would have put his accusers to shame, but he did not.  He kept silent.  Don’t congratulate yourself for being high-minded and pious if in fact you are just dodging a losing battle.

Third, Jesus did not have a seething silence.  Seething silence is the kind of silence that says nothing in the moment, but bottles it up in anger and resentment.  Not only did Jesus keep silent verbally, but he also kept quiet in his spirit.  He was not waiting until he could get out of the room to find some sympathetic ear to vent to.  See him in what followed.  When he was presented to the crowd who called for his crucifixion, he didn’t yell back curses at them.  When he was carrying his cross along the road and he encountered some weeping women, he did not snap at them with a short temper because his fuse was already short from having endured and bottled up all those accusations. Rather, he had a kind and selfless word born out of concern for what these women would soon face.

How did he maintain a quiet spirit?  He had a living faith in his Father as the Holy One who sees all things and will bring all things into judgment in his time.  That living faith is what we need as well.

Habakkuk was distressed because the wicked in his day seemed always to have the upper hand.  He saw violence and injustice, but as far as he could tell, God didn’t seem to hear or see. So Habakkuk complains to God.  He was frustrated and upset—no quiet spirit.  But God had the solution for Habakkuk’s anxious, angry spirit. He revealed to Habakkuk that he was going to bring severe destruction on the land.  God saw the evil going on more clearly than Habakkuk did, and more clearly than you do, and more clearly than I do.  He saw the nature of it and the course of it, and God pronounced woes on all the wicked and the arrogant.  And after all that God said, Habakkuk changed his tune.  He stopped complaining about how bad other people are, and he prayed, “In wrath remember [your] mercy,” meaning “not my merit.”

In an evil world, Habakkuk saw God striding in powerfully, threshing the nations and delivering his people. And he saw that God would do this again. In the midst of wickedness, Habakkuk said, “Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab. 3:16–18).  The knowledge of God will quiet our hearts and enable us to leave all in his hands.

I want to conclude this point with a statement from J. C. Ryle: “Learn to suffer patiently, and not to complain, whatever God may think fit to lay upon us.  Let us take heed to our ways, that we not offend in our tongues in the hour of temptation.  Let us beware of giving way to irritation and ill temper, however provoking and undeserved our trials may seem to be.  Nothing in the Christian character glorifies God so much as patient suffering.”

The Demand for a Verdict

The third reason Jesus did not answer is that Pilate did not need any answer to know the truth.  Pilate’s one task was to give a just ruling.  He could see very clearly what was going on, as far as he needed to, in order to give his verdict.  When he looked at Jesus, he saw a man who clearly was no rabble rouser and no threat to Roman authority.  He could see that the chief priests had no case against him.  They lost their cool, and Pilate could see that they were motivated by envy.  So Pilate knew that the truth is Jesus was innocent, and it was his job to declare it in a final and judicial way.

It was Pilate’s job to give a verdict on Jesus, and each one of us also must declare a verdict about Jesus.  Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” is a question each of us must answer, and our eternity depends on the answer that we give.

There are three other aspects of Pilate’s situation that I want to bring out that have parallels to our own situation  The first is that a right verdict could realistically have cost Pilate everything.  We may suppose that Pilate’s position was a strong one, so he could rule freely how he wanted.  After all, the Romans ruled Judea, Pilate was the governor, and the chief priests had come to him for a ruling.  But all was not as it seemed.  Pilate had a history that made his present situation precarious.  He began his rule as a bold, brash, proud man, showing utter contempt for the Jews, and that got him in trouble that previous governors had avoided by showing some restraint.

I have time only to touch on the incidents that occurred.  In one, Pilate had set up standards with depictions of Caesar in Jerusalem, and since Caesar was considered a god, the Jews objected to this as idolatry.  After they kept on protesting, Pilate brought the protesting Jews into the amphitheater in Caesarea and threatened to massacre them if they did not stop.  The Jews bared their necks and said, “Go ahead and massacre us.”  They called his bluff, and Pilate removed the images.

In another incident, Pilate took money from the temple treasury to fund the building of an aqueduct in Jerusalem.  That money had been devoted to God.  The people rioted, and Pilate sent men into the rioting Jewish crowd, and they clubbed and stabbed many Jews to death.

In a third incident, the Jews complained to Caesar in Rome about images Pilate had set up in his palace in Jerusalem, and Caesar commanded Pilate to remove them.

All of this meant that Pilate did not have respect of the Jews, and he was on thin ice with Caesar.  If there was another riot, if the Jews reported to Caesar that Pilate had released a man who claimed to be king against their protest, Pilate would likely not only loose his position, but would also face prison, exile, or death.

So also for us, there is at times real risk and a real cost of losing much if we state outright that Jesus is Lord either in principle or in application to a particular situation.  We can be cancelled, so that we lose our job.  We can be brought to trial on illegitimate charges of hate speech or discrimination.  We can lose friends.  We can lose relationship with family.  Though it is rare in this country, in some places it may even cost us our lives.

The second thing about Pilate’s position as Jesus stood before him is that the enemies of Jesus would not back down.  They were intransigent.  Pilate may have hoped that they would calm down, see what was so evidently true, and, if they did not actually drop the matter, perhaps at least they would accept some compromise.  But that would not happen.  So also for us.  The opposition we face is unreasonable and unyielding.  It is not going soften with time, because the world hates Jesus Christ.  The world is constantly working to suppress the truth.  The world will never come around and agree that God is good, and his lordship is legitimate.

The third thing about Pilate’s position is that he had no way out of it.  He wanted someone else to take the arrows or make the decision, so that he could simply follow in their wake, but no one did.  First, he hoped Jesus would defend himself, so Jesus could do Pilate’s job for him.  But Jesus would not do it.  Then Pilate heard the charge that Jesus started in Galilee and has come all the way to Jerusalem.  Galilee!  That was Herod’s jurisdiction.  So between verse 5 and verse 6 of Mark 15, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, probably hoping that Herod would declare him innocent, or if not, would be responsible for declaring him guilty.  But passing the buck to Herod didn’t work.  Herod just sent Jesus back, in essence agreeing that Jesus was innocent, but not making any ruling.  Then Pilate tried appealing to the crowd, but that didn’t work either.  And so by not making a ruling, Pilate eventually made a ruling.

So also for us.  Neither God nor the world will let you out of declaring who Jesus is.  The world wants everyone to conform to its standard.  You cannot hide quietly on the sidelines forever.  And God expects you to make the good confession for yourself in the presence of many witnesses.

How are we to declare this verdict?  The first way is through baptism.  In baptism, you make a public confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.  You may be convinced in your own mind that Jesus is the Son of God, that he will come again to judge the world, and that everything the Bible says is true.  But that is not the same as declaring it publicly.  Children, you cannot hide behind your parents and simply be a member of a Christian family.  You must stand on your own.  It takes backbone to stand up and declare, “This is what I say: Jesus Christ is Lord.”  It is appropriate that we often sing at baptisms, “I have decided to follow Jesus.  Though none go with me, still I will follow.”  And then don’t stop at baptism, but as every opportunity presents itself, make it known that you are a Christian.  Be out front with it. God wants our light to shine in this world.

We also declare our verdict by taking a stand where the rubber meets the road when it comes to the kingdom of God and Lord Jesus Christ.  In many of the hot-button issues of our day, the world around us seems to have gone insane.  How can intelligent rational people believe that a person who is objectively male can declare that he is a woman, and therefore this person is now a woman?  How can civilized people support the killing of babies in the womb?  How can people think that two men or two women can make a marriage?  We notice in all these issues, this is just opposition to God’s good things revealed in creation.  At creation, God made man in his image, male and female.  He joined the man and the woman together in marriage, and he said that it was good.  That much is plain, but the world is not going to acknowledge what is plainly true anymore than the chief priests did with Jesus.  The world is also not content to hold its own opinions.  At one time, it asked for tolerance, but now it demands approval.  If you would take a stand for Christ and for truth, you will have to say so openly, and without receiving sympathy.

Those who confess Christ also embrace the priority of the kingdom of God.  The world does not understand the kingdom of God.  In some cases, the world will say that you can have your religion and you can have your God, but family must come first.  In other cases, it is career first.  There will come times in your life when you have to take a stand and state your determined and considered decision to live according to God’s standard.

I will say again that a private opinion is not enough.  You can hear what is preached and find no fault with it.  You can wish that people would honor Christ and acknowledge what is plainly true.  But that is not enough.  The age we live in calls for courage.  If you believe in Jesus Christ, say so.  Make it known that you are a Christian.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”  Revelation 14:1 tells us that the saints of God have the name of the Lamb and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.  May that be true of us in this life and in eternity!  I pray that everyone here will take their stand on the good confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”