“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.
According to Acts 8, when an Ethiopian royal official was studying this verse, he questioned Philip the evangelist (vs. 34), “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Taking this Scripture as his starting point, Philip presented “the good news about Jesus” (vs.35). Clearly, it is vital to know who Isaiah’s oracle is talking about.
It is equally important, however, to understand what this oracle is revealing specifically about the person and work of Jesus. Unlike the many Old Testament passages that employ shepherd-sheep imagery to communicate notions of safety and divine care (e.g., Psalm 23, Jeremiah 31:10), Isaiah speaks of the unjust “slaughter” of a sacrificial lamb. The Acts account quotes Isaiah 53:8 in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), which makes the injustice suffered by the victim even more explicit:
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth (Acts 8:33, emphasis mine)
In Isaiah 53:7 and Acts 8:32, the lamb’s silence before the shearers indicates its submission to such unjust treatment; the lamb raises no objection, as it were, to this violation of justice.
Silence in the face of injustice? Our culture screams out its opposition to such a thing. The traditional Latin proverb qui tacet consentire videtur (“He who remains silent appears to give consent”) is alive and well in our society, with pithy contemporary mantras like “silence = assent” or “silence = complicity.” There is undoubtedly an element of truth to this, since we do have a responsibility to speak up in defense of the innocent.
According to the Westminster Larger Catechism (Q.144), the Ninth Commandment’s prohibition against bearing false witness also includes the proactive responsibility to preserve, promote, and defend our neighbor’s reputation. Furthermore, the Catechism even calls on us to do the same for the sake of our own good reputation “when need requireth it.” In other words, it is a God-given responsibility to defend oneself against false charges.
Strikingly, this is precisely what Jesus refused to do on the night of his betrayal: he did not attempt to clear his name by responding to the biased charges made against him. The Gospel accounts of Christ’s trial and sufferings speak of his intentional silence at the exact moments when he could have spoken up in his own defense. For example, he refused to answer the priestly-led Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:62-63; Mark 14:60-61), resulting in his condemnation by the highest representatives of God’s covenant people.
Likewise, he refused to respond to Pontius Pilate (John 19:9-11), with the result that he was handed over to crucifixion by the authorized representative of Roman imperial power. God’s people themselves placed their seal of approval on these terrible acts of injustice by subsequently crying out for Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:22-23; Mark 15:13-14; Luke 23:20, 23).
And through it all, the Lamb of God remained silent before the shearers.
Does silence indicate assent? Does silence imply complicity? By his silence, Jesus did indeed give his assent to the proceedings against him, yet he was not approving the evil intentions of fallen mankind. Rather, he gave his assent to the redemptive role his Father gave him. As he became the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, he bore not only all of the world’s acts of injustice but also the perfect justice of a holy God against mankind’s sin.
Christ’s silence was, ultimately, his full and loving compliance with his Father’s righteous will. After all, had he spoken up and vindicated himself at the crucial moment, he would never have been condemned to die. Instead of defending himself, he remained silent and “continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).
As we behold the innocent Lamb of God, let us grieve our role in his unjust slaughter. Yet even more, let us be thankful that the Lord Jesus faithfully remained a silent lamb before the shearers. It was the only way that he would endure the injustice of man and the justice of God at the same time, which was the only way that we could be counted perfectly just before God. Like the Ethiopian eunuch, let us receive this good news of Isaiah 53:7 and “go on our way rejoicing” because of the work of Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God “opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7) so that we might be saved; may the Lord now open our lips, that we might declare his praise (Psalm 51:15).
Max Rogland serves as the senior minister of Rose Hill Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina.