In the face of all the false accusations of the chief priests and the elders, Jesus makes no answer, because they are nothing but clamor, confusion, jealousy, and uncontrolled hatred (Mt 27:14). Jesus, in being silent, intends to show his contempt for the lies, for he is the truth, the light, and the only way that leads to Life. His cause does not need to be defended. We do not defend the truth and the light: their splendor is their own defense. This prompted Saint Ambrose (in his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 10, 97) to say: “The Lord is accused and keeps silent. And it is with good reason that he keeps silent; it is because he has no need of defense. Those who try to defend themselves are those who fear being defeated. His silence meant not, as the saying goes, that he was giving consent, but rather that he thought too little of those accusations to dignify them with a response.” Pilate, surprised at the silence and serenity of Jesus, says to him: “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” (Mt 27:13). Jesus is so imperturbable, so calm, and so peaceful that one might think he does not hear the howling of the crowd, which is drunk with hatred. But recall that it is written: “Yes, I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I pray, ‘Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!’ For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me” (Ps 38:14-17). And so Pilate adds: “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you” (Mk 15:4). And the Lord answers nothing, so that the governor is even more surprised (Mt 27:14). He does not understand the cause of such an extraordinary silence.
He is confronted with God’s silence, in the midst of the howling of men who are drunk with irrational hatred! The priests, at least, ought to have remembered what was written by the prophet Isaiah:
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.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Is 53:7-9)
We have just experienced with Jesus before Pilate and Herod the excitement of the high priests, the elders, and the crowd. This event may seem to us surprising and scandalous, but it contains for us a doctrine and a teaching: in the school of Jesus, with our heart, understanding, and will wide open, let us allow God to introduce us into his silence and diligently learn to love and to live in this same silence.
