When Silence Speaks (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to spend a few moments in prayer and in God's word. Today, we'll talk about when silence speaks. Mark chapter 5, verses 1 to 5, ‘very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So, they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. Are you the king of the Jews? asked Pilate. You have said so, Jesus replied. The chief priest accused him of many things. So again, pilot asked him, are you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of. But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.’ This was the official daylight trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. The trial was held immediately in the morning for good reason. The detail that Jesus was delivered to Pilate's forum early in the morning is a significant index of the historical accuracy of the tradition. It is necessary for the Sanhedrin to bring its business to Pilate soon after dawn because the working day of a Roman official began at the earliest hour of daylight. The Jewish leaders had reason to expect a favorable result when they sent Jesus to Pilate. Secular history shows us that he was a cruel, ruthless man and completely insensitive to the moral feelings of others. Surely, they thought Pilate will put Jesus to death. There was something working against this expectation. History tells us that Pilate simply didn't like the Jews and he believed that they were a stubborn, rebellious people. Since he was constantly suspicious of the Jews and when they brought Him as a prisoner for execution, he immediately suspected that the Jews had a hidden agenda at work. There was an established procedure for a criminal trial. The magistrate and the judge examined both the accusation and the accused. Are you the king of the Jews? The Jewish rulers knew that they brought Jesus before Pilate on the charge of claiming to be God. When we Romans have hundreds of gods, what is the harm of having one more? Yet if they brought Jesus before Pilate as the king of the Jews, Pilate would have to take him seriously as a potential political threat. If Jesus answered a plain yes to Pilate's question, Pilate would have immediately declared guilty of treason against Rome. Often, we say a lot without saying much. The discipline of silence however guides us to reflect on what we do say. We become better listeners both to God and to those around us. Let us pray, Father, we want to thank you for the example that you have put for us, that even at times we are to learn how to speak, when to speak. We pray that you will teach us Lord. Help us to trust in your ways more than our ways. We thank you for the leading and guiding of your Holy Spirit in and through us, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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