Isaiah 50.4-9a; Philippians 2.5-11; Matthew 27. 11-54

THE FILM opened "to rapturous acclaim across the Western world". "It has been a phenomenal box-office smash-hit." So says the slip-case which the DVD comes in. This is not the latest Hollywood blockbuster, nor a new James Bond or Harry Potter. It is a documentary, 19 years in the making and nearly three hours long, recording life inside the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps.

Here the monks pass their days, indeed, their whole lives, almost entirely in silence. The film is largely silent, too, apart from the chants we hear from the great abbey church. In its English version, the film is entitled Into Great Silence. As we approach the cross, we enter, with Jesus, "into great silence".
Our readings interpret the Passion of Jesus as a fulfilment of the role of "the servant", about whom the anonymous prophet speaks, whose oracles form the later chapters of our book of Isaiah. We hear the servant tell us that God gave him "a teacher's tongue", and that he knows how "to sustain the weary with a word". From the day of his baptism to the hour of his arrest, "the common people heard Jesus gladly" (Mark 12.37), and many were the weary whom he consoled by the timely word.

Yet it is not in his sayings, but in his silence, that Jesus is most like the promised servant. "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth" (Isaiah 53.7). We recognise in this silent figure the one we know as Jesus of Nazareth.

Matthew's Passion narrative, closely following that of Mark, is a study of "the silence of the Lamb". Jesus is silent before those who accuse him and torture him. He is silent before the orchestrated demands of the crowd for his death. And, after the briefest of exchanges, he is silent before Pontius Pilate.

"Are you the King of the Jews?" asks Pilate. "So you say," says Jesus. Pilate must decide for himself - as we must - who he is. Then Jesus says no more, so that Pilate wonders, as well he might.

According to Mark, the earliest Gospel, the silence of Christ crucified is broken only by one terrible utterance: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15.34) So vividly is this cry recalled that the very Aramaic in which it was uttered is remembered.

Matthew, too, has just this one cry of dereliction. To be sure, the other Gospels record other sayings from the cross. According to Luke, Jesus prays for our forgiveness, because we did not know what we were doing. He promises paradise to the penitent thief. As he dies, he commends his spirit to his father (Luke 23.34, 43, 46).

John, too, has three sayings. Jesus commends his mother to his beloved disciple. He cries "I thirst," and, at the last, triumphantly: "It is finished" (John 19.26-7, 28, 30).

We cling to these words, and it is to our profit that we do so. But, having said them, Jesus speaks no more. The great silence is now unbroken. And into that silence, the silence the other side of utterance, we must enter.

There are two types of Christianity - the talkative and the taciturn. There is the Christianity that goes on and on, and there is the Christianity that shuts up. Talkative Christianity delights in argument. Talkative Christianity proves the existence of God.

Talkative Christianity gives you reasons, reasons for believing in the virgin birth, in the resurrection, in life after death. Talkative Christianity tries to explain everything. It even tries to explain how a loving and powerful God can permit the innocent to suffer.

Taciturn Christianity respects the mystery of things. We try, as try we must, to dispel confusion, superstition, and misunderstanding. But the enigma of it all only deepens. Taciturn Christianity does not always try to explain, but simply watches and waits beneath the cross, echoing in its own heart the anguished "Why?" of the one who hangs there.

Taciturn Christianity reaches into the great silence of Christ crucified. That is the vocation of the monk and nun committed to the silent quest for God, knowing that only where words cease is God to be found. The rest of us, whose misfortune it is not to live in a monastery, must seek whatever silence we can salvage from the clamour of our days.

What survives of silence can sometimes be found in an empty church. R. S. Thomas writes:

To one kneeling down no word came,
Only the wind's song, saddening the lips
Of the grave saints, rigid in glass;
Or the dry whisper of unseen wings,
Bats not angels, in the high roof.

Was he balked by silence? He kneeled long
And saw love in a dark crown
Of thorns blazing, and a winter tree
Golden with fruit of a man's body.

Text of readings

Isaiah 50.4-9a

The servant of the LORD said:

4The Lord GOD has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens –
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
6I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.

7The Lord GOD helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

Philippians 2.5-11

5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross.

9Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Matthew 27. 11-54

11Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You say so.’ 12But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. 13Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?’ 14But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

15Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. 16At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. 17So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ 18For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. 19While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ 20Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ 22Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ 23Then he asked, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’

24So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ 25Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ 26So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

27Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ 30They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

32As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’

38Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, 40‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ 41In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.”’ 44The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.

45From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ 47When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ 48At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ 50Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’