| Silent Opinion |
 We've been taught to respond to evil by enduring it silently. Especially when evil happens within our church culture, we think Christlikeness means remaining mute.
Didn't Isaiah prophesy of Christ: "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" (Isa. 53:7)?
Yes.
But God's truths always occur in tension. There is "a time to be silent" - and "a time to speak" (Eccl. 3:7). |
| Truth in Tension |
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So when did Jesus not speak up? He kept silent during the mock trial before the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:59-63) He kept silent before Pilate, while religious leaders hurled accusations against Him (Matt. 27:11-14). He kept silent while Herod questioned Him and religious leaders accused Him (Luke 23:8-10).
Filled with the Holy Spirit, ever listening to the Father, Jesus remained silent for one day. That day, Jesus did not open His mouth to refute His accusers.
The rest of His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke. Often, He responded to questions, insults, insinuations and threats from the religious crowd. Once, He announced:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are" (Matt. 23:13-15).
Whoa! Did Jesus forget for a moment to be Christlike? How else could He have said words that sound so harsh?
Jesus didn't lose His temper. He didn't speak from bitterness. He wasn't trying to get even. He died for the very people He castigated - and forgave them even while dying.
Yet Jesus saw clearly. He saw people leading other people toward a bridge out. He did not remain silent. He cried out to warn them all.
Before His death, Jesus told His disciples, "Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now. Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life - body and soul - in his hands" (Matt. 10:26-28 MSG).
After Jesus' resurrection, the Gospel writers went public. Telling the story of Jesus and the early church, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not keep silent about ungodly words and actions of people committed to religious structures. Speaking without bitterness or vindictiveness, the Gospel writers warn, "Don't follow others into a pit. Don't lead others into a pit." |
| Moral Question |
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Suppose a woman is raped. Suppose the woman finds that others, many others, have been raped by the same person - and the culprit remains at large. Is it right for the woman to come forward and tell her story, or is silence the more righteous choice?
What if the guilty party has great wealth and power? People highly esteem him. They admire him and want to please him. A man of great charisma, he is highly skilled in appearing righteous.
He makes the most of all these tools to intimidate his victims and suppress the truth. He tells each victim the rape was her fault. Meanwhile, he discreetly spreads rumors portraying her as disgruntled or difficult or crazy. He assures her that, if she speaks up, no one will believe her and, in fact, she will emerge as the villain. After all, he controls the press and the police. Even people sincerely seeking to know what's going on will have difficulty seeing the truth.
Is it right for the woman to come forward and tell her story, or is silence the more righteous choice? |
| True Confession |
| I've been raped.
It happened multiple times over a number of months. It happened because I would not and could not give religious structures equal billing with Christ.
The same time the brutality started, the movie, The Passion of the Christ, was released. Watching that movie, I kept asking myself, "How did Jesus finish? How did He complete the suffering God required of Him?"
In the months afterward, the Spirit of Christ miraculously enabled me to finish what God required. He did not allow me to publicly cry out. It was a time to keep silent. I did appeal to those who could have stopped the assaults. To my shock, I found that some of those I trusted to help were fueling the cruelty. Others said, "We're going to do what's right." But they didn't have the power to stop the rapist and, like Pilate, they ended up capitulating to him.
Repeatedly, injustice has proclaimed itself victor. Repeatedly, I've entrusted myself to Him who judges justly. He enables me to bless those who've cursed me. He is teaching me to uproot bitterness, refuse vindictiveness and forgive.
Throughout this silent season, God has told me a time to speak would come. He said to me, "Look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see" (Ezek. 40:4).
Looking carefully, listening closely, researching extensively, I've seen: My experience was not an isolated one. My ill-treatment wasn't the first, nor the worst. And the rampage has not ended.
The rapist remains at large and continues to assault God's people. Some die. Many are broken and bitter. Some have seen the abuse but, because they've managed to avoid the worst of it, have turned their heads and hidden their eyes. Others, like young abducted children, have come to see their captor and oppressor as their benefactor.
The rapist is not a person, but a structure.
I was deceived, then devastated, by this structure. The worst was happening before I had any clue what was going on. |
| Life After Devastation |
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Maybe you too have been raped by religious structures. You're devastated and bewildered. Everything has been twisted, so what's right seems wrong, and wrong seems perfectly acceptable. If you've suffered this anguish, may I hold you for a moment?
May I tell you, in God's behalf: What happened to you was wrong. God had no part in it. Jesus Christ hates that such acts are connected with His name.
Remember the day Jesus stood silent before His accusers? That same day, He cried out from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).
Today, will you let Christ hold you? Will you let His Spirit in you wrench those same confessions from you? Will you let Him bring you through this painful death to resurrection life? |
| Toward Restoration |
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If you haven't experienced or witnessed what I've described, you may think I'm letting my own pain distort the truth. Certainly, I'm still working through the trauma. I'm in process - and am committed to cooperate with Jesus until fully restored. Yet, as God is my witness, I have not overstated or skewed either my own situation or the gravity of the larger issues.
Can I tell you honestly? Until I experienced it personally, I could not see it either. Trauma opened my eyes to the truth. Now, God is opening my mouth to warn: "The bridge is out!" "The rapist remains at large!" |
| Not a Politician |
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We expect to see evil out there in the world. Ah, but when it shows up in the place we expected to find righteousness, we cannot believe what we're seeing. Retreating into denial, we assure ourselves that dark thing was a quirk, an anomaly.
If the ugliness becomes too blatant to deny, we tend to blame people, alternately thinking, "They're the problem. No, I'm the problem. No, they're the problem. No . . ." We assume the solution lies in getting "them" to move on - or in moving ourselves to a different spot within the structure.
Thus, like a woman in a suspense thriller, we seek refuge in the very place where peril awaits.
We think we can trust institutions we associate with God. We think that in honoring these structures, we are honoring God. Instead, we are highly esteeming what is temporary. We're finding our identity in what is fleeting. We're controlled by the works of our hands.
The more we esteem structures, the more power we yield to ungodly spirits that show up wherever they sense misplaced worship. The more we draw our significance from structures - even those we associate with Christ - the more we open the way for the evil one to use these structures to rape, pillage and oppress God's people.
We haven't seen the extent of the damage or pinpointed its source because the religious spirits we've mistaken for God keep us isolated. Repeatedly, they whisper, "Shhhh."
"'Do not speak out,' so they speak out," says Micah 2:6 (NASU). "But," the prophet declares, "if they do not speak out concerning these things, reproaches will not be turned back."
Speaking out is dangerous. It requires seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It requires continually cooperating with the Father as He exposes and purges the evil in our own hearts. It requires being filled with His Spirit. It requires moment by moment submission to Jesus as Lord. It requires forgiving. It requires relationships that provide strong accountability. Otherwise, we will say the wrong thing from the wrong motive at the wrong time in the wrong way.
What's more, the rapists we're exposing will do everything in their power to shred our reputation and wreak havoc in our lives.
Yet Micah warned: If God's people "do not speak out concerning these things, reproaches will not be turned back." Jesus commanded, "Don't be intimidated. . . . Go public now. . . . Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies."
If you're crying, "Lord Jesus, be honored through me!" and He says to you, "Speak!" He will purify your motives. He will teach you what to say, how to say it, and when. He will use the truth to deliver His people, further His kingdom and bring great glory to Himself.
Will you dare to ask God whether you are cooperating with any structure that is oppressing His people? Will you give Him permission to show you the truth? Will you act on what He says?
To me, He's saying, "It's time to speak." Trusting Him to do what I cannot, I answer, "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch" (Isa. 62:1).
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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.
Other translations used: New American Standard Updated (NASU) and The Message (MSG): The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.
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Deborah P. Brunt