Many years ago I knew a woman who was diagnosed with throat cancer, and surgeons removed a large part of her tongue. I remember being amazed by how much this surgery changed her life. Our tongues are covered in large part by taste buds, and after her surgery she had very little sense of taste left. Even when she did eat, she had difficulty swallowing.
But the biggest change was that it became very difficult for her to speak. We don’t think about how many movements the tongue makes when we speak, about how important the tongue is for forming sounds that we use to communicate with each other.
It’s only after we lose the use of our tongues – or even partial loss of our tongues – that we realize how much our tongues affect us physically. But as Scripture tells us, the tongue does more than affect us physically. The tongue – and the words that come from the tongue – affects us spiritually. In Matthew chapter 15, Jesus says: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” James the brother of Jesus writes: “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
If you stop to think about it – if you honestly think about it – we sin with our tongues over and over and over again each and every day. For example, consider how often we sin against the Eighth Commandment. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,” God tells us. What does this mean? Luther explains it to mean that “we should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Or to summarize Luther’s explanation – we shouldn’t gossip. Yes, we know that words of gossip that flow from our tongues are harmful. We know that words of gossip that flow from our tongues are sinful. But does that stop us?
Even if something is true, does that mean that we are to talk about it if the end result will be hurtful to someone else? How easy is it for a partial truth spread by gossip to become an outright falsehood? How easy is it to take just some of the information – perhaps just that part of the information that fits our preconceived notions of right and wrong – and judge people, even though Jesus warns us about that: “Judge not, that you be not judged,” He tells us in Matthew 7. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Luther tells us to “explain everything in the kindest way,” but let’s face it – often our stories sound a lot better if we add a few juicy details or if we emphasize a few key points, just to keep things interesting.
Or how about the Fourth Commandment? “Honor your father and mother.” Those words seem pretty simple. But they’re not so simple to live in real life, are they? After all, our parents aren’t perfect – and sometimes it’s awfully tempting to let them know that. Even as we age and they age, we sometimes say things and do things that come across as hurtful or unkind. Sometimes we’re tempted to let them know in no uncertain terms that we’re adults now – and their behavior can seem a little childish.
In his explanation of the Fourth Commandment, Luther says: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.” Often it’s those “and other authorities” words that can get us into trouble here. People like our elected governmental leaders … perhaps our boss at work … anyone who holds a position of authority. So if we voted against an elected leader of government, is it OK to belittle him or show him disrespect? If the boss acts like a jerk, is it OK to talk about him behind his back – to undermine his authority – to look for ways to make him look bad? If I don’t like the way a teacher is treating me, is it OK trash her in conversations with my friends? The Fourth Commandment tells us to honor everyone who has been placed in authority over us – a mother, a father, an elected official, an employer, a teacher, you add your own names to the list – but we’re not very good at doing that, are we? Instead of keeping quiet, we say something to someone. Instead of showing respect, we show our contempt and our insolence. Instead of honoring, serving, obeying, loving and cherishing them, we send a nasty e-mail or a hate-filled text message.
The text for tonight’s sermon is Isaiah 53:7, which reads as follows: “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.” When we hear Isaiah prophesy that Jesus would be led “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,” many of us jump immediately to the words of John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” We draw the connection between the Old Testament sacrifice of a perfect, unblemished lamb as a “sin offering” and God the Father’s sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ for the redemption of our sins. Those are easy connections to make – and they are entirely correct.
But if we dig a little further, if we really burrow down into the text, we discover that Isaiah is telling us something more – more than just a sweeping generality. We realize that Isaiah was not carelessly repeating himself when he included the words “he opened not his mouth” not once, but twice in this single verse. What we discover is that Isaiah is explaining to us that Jesus remaining silent during His arrest, His trial, His suffering and His death was a part – a very important part – of His obedience to His Father, an obedience that led to His death because that was the plan ordained by His Father even before the creation of the world.
Consider this. Of all the men and women who have ever lived on this earth – and here we must remember that not only is Jesus true God, but He also is a true, breathing man – no one has ever had more reason to complain, to speak up, to say something about the way that He was being treated than Jesus. Jesus never told a lie, but his accusers told countless lies about Him. Jesus never set out to cause pain to another human, but countless humans violently set out to cause Him pain. The words that flowed from the tongues of His accusers, His torturers and His murders were filled with hate – but when Jesus did speak during those final hours, His words were filled only with love. Even as He hung in agony on the cross, His words gave nothing but comfort and absolution: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
When we consider how our words daily break God’s Commandments, we realize that Jesus – and only Jesus – could ever meet the demands of those Commandments. As we sin against the Commandments, we realize that Jesus and only Jesus could remain sinless in every respect.
Jesus could have called on God to damn those who tortured Him – but He didn’t. He could have cursed those who made Him suffer – but He didn’t. He could have spoken words of judgment and righteous anger against the Temple authorities who persecuted Him and against the witnesses who lied about Him – but He didn’t. He could have shown complete and utter disrespect for Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who caved in to the crowds and ordered Jesus’ death – but He didn’t. He could have scorned the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners who came to Him – but He didn’t. When a woman who had committed adultery was brought to Him, Jesus could have agreed to her death by stoning as was the custom of Jewish law. Instead, he wrote – silently – in the dust of the ground. And turning to the woman He said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on, sin no more.”
It is entirely correct to say that Jesus died for our sins – for all of our sins. But as we pause to consider Jesus’ silence during His final hours, we realize that Jesus suffered in silence to forgive us for all of the times when we should have kept quiet. Jesus suffered in silence for all of the times that we have knowingly or even unknowingly broken the Fourth Commandment, the Eighth Commandment – indeed, for our breaking of every Commandment. Jesus suffered in silence for every time that our tongues have formed words of gossip, of slander, of hurt, of disrespect, of anger, of hate.
In Jesus’ silence, we learn what it is to be obedient to the Father, to keep quiet when keeping quiet is pleasing to God, to suffer in silence if that is the will of the Father. We remember the beautiful words of Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Isaiah 53:7 “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.” During this Lenten Season, we ponder in awed silence what Jesus Christ has done for us. Every time we open our mouths, Jesus shows us how not to sin with our tongues. His forgiveness grants us grace, that we may know when to keep quiet.
Note: This sermon was freely adapted from a sermon series entitled “Our Suffering Servant” (Christopher W. Mitchell, published by Concordia Publishing House).
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