"He answered no thing." Mark 15:3
There is no spectacle so sublime in all the Bible as the silent Savior answering not a word to all the men who were maligning Him, and whom he could have laid prostrate at His feet by one look of divine power, or one word of fiery rebuke. But He will let them say and do their worst, and He stood in the POWER OF STILLNESS - God's holy silent Lamb.
There is a stillness that let's God work for us, and holds our peace; the stillness that ceases from its contriving and its self-vindication, and its expedients of wisdom and forethought, and lets God provide and answer the cruel blow, in His own unfailing, faithful love.
How often we lose God's interposition by taking up our own cause, and striking in our defense. God gave to us this silent power, this conquered spirit! And after the heat and strife of earth are over, men will remember us as we remember the morning dew, the gentle light and sunshine, the evening breeze, the Lamb of Calvary, and the gentle, holy heavenly dove.
The day when Jesus stood alone
And felt the hearts of men like stone,
And knew He came but to atone-
That day "He held His peace."
They witnessed falsely to His word,
They bound Him with a cruel cord,
And mockingly proclaimed Him Lord;
"But Jesus held His peace"
They spat upon Him in the face,
They dragged Him on from place to place,
They heaped upon Him all disgrace;
"But Jesus held His peace."
My friend, have you for far much less,
With rage, which you called righteousness,
Resented slights with great distress?
Your Savior "held His peace."
I remember once hearing Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, so well known as "The Apostle of the Indians," utter these beautiful words: "For thirty years I have tried to see the face of Christ in those with whom I differed." When this spirit actuates us we shall be preserved at once from a narrow bigotry and an easygoing tolerance, from passionate vindictiveness and everything that would mar or injure our testimony for Him who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them.
Excerpt from Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman