{"id":6188,"date":"2020-04-14T17:27:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T07:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6188"},"modified":"2020-04-15T22:43:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T12:43:34","slug":"the-silent-lamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-silent-lamb\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silent Lamb"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Silent Lamb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Marina Giurgius<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u2018Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>Isaiah 53:7<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A solider\ncompletely silent in the midst of war. Not a single war cry or victory scream.\nThat same solider later forgives his enemy on the battlefield, in the midst of\nhis agony. You and I can both agree that this all sounds somewhat unrealistic,\nunbelievable perhaps?  Well this solider\nwas Christ and his battlefield was Golgotha. Does that make it any more\ncomprehendible? As we journey into Holy Week, let\u2019s try to make sense of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every\naspect of death on the Cross had a ghastliness about it. It was the most\nagonising of Roman capital punishments and to make it crueller it was not a\ndirect road either. Christ first underwent a patronising trial, excruciating\ntorture and a mockery and all whilst remaining silent. He did not speak during\nthese events and spoke only 7 things on the Cross, all of which were not for\nhis own profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, what stopped You from crying out to\ndefend Yourself against the affliction? What satisfied Your heart so much, that\nit was worth the suffering?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not you\nand I alone questioning His silence. Many at the time and to this day may say\nthat Christ was silent as a means of escaping His tribulation however, it is in\nfact the complete opposite. It was simply a still submission to the will of His\nFather and a depiction of His great love for mankind as \u2018Love does not seek its own\u2019 (1 Corinthians 13:5).  <\/em>Just as He left to go to the wilderness,\nthe abyss of silence it was rather a spiritual battlefield than a means of an\nescape. His silence is perhaps one of the most overlooked lessons on\nforgiveness given from the Cross. His silence was not fear, but sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we\nspeak many words it only satisfies our hollow weaknesses within us but serves\nlittle purpose to our soul belonging to God. It is a challenging task to ask someone\nto accept an injustice without getting caught up in a confrontation or an\nargument. Is this not what Christ did on the Cross when He paid the price for\nour sins in silence? The most difficult of tasks is to not speak in the midst\nof chaos \u201cA soft answer turns away wrath,\nbut a harsh word stirs up anger\u201d (Proverbs 15:1).  <\/em>This is the first step to forgiveness as\nwe begin to silence our anger and resentment with silence itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word\n\u2018give\u2019 makes up the word FORGIVE and so it is no surprise that this is moreover\nat its centrality. The Silent Lamb broke His silence only to give. He gave his\nenemies and persecutors forgiveness. He gave the Right-Hand Thief the keys to\nparadise and eternal life. He gave the solider who speared his side a kindness\nthat later made him a great saint. He gave His blessed mother a son and carer.\nHe gave his Father a ransom paid in full and He gave humanity redemption and\nsalvation from an eternal inferno. He gave only to receive a gift of\nhumiliation, grief, suffering and pain embellished with a crown of thorns.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first\nwords of Christ at the Cross:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFather, forgive them for they do not know what they\ndo\u201d (Luke 23:34) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St John,\nthe Mother of Christ and the three Mary\u2019s are all at the foot of the cross and\nbefore speaking to them, Christ breaks his silence with a request of\nforgiveness for his enemies. He prays for his enemies before He addresses His\nown Mother and His own anguish. Not only was it a simple request of forgiveness\non behalf of His enemies but a firm shield of defence and an exemption of their\nignorance. How comforting is it to know that Christ is our chief advocate\nbefore the throne of God, for there is no earthly defender that can compare to\nsuch. Christ continually provides us with the benefit of the doubt for our\nsins, excusing our sins but how often do we do this with others?  St John Chrysostom explains that waiting for\nyour enemy to come to you seeking forgiveness is vain and a heavenly reward\nwill only come to those who make peace with their enemy on the same day despite\ncriticism. Setting an excuse for your enemy will allow you to forgive before\nthey ask and is an ultimate expression of love, the core lesson from the cross.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the pain of the Cross did not amount to the pain He felt one night earlier in the garden of Gethsemane. Upon Christ\u2019s great anguish kneeling before the Father with sweat dripping from his holy temple in the form of blood, He requests,\u2018Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done\u2019 <\/em>(Luke 22:42). <\/em>We can be comforted knowing we have been promised condition-less forgiveness without needing to ask,\u201cIf you are willing, forgive me\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Anthony the Great says \u201cIf we remember our sins, God forgives them but if we forget our sins,\nGod remembers them.\u201d <\/em> It is with a continual\nremembrance of our sins that it becomes impossible for us to say our own sins\nare lesser than those committed against us and this too will help us forgive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nultimate role-model Jesus Christ even on the Cross in the peak of His torment\ndid not cease to guide and inspire us to forgive. So here are the four things\ntaken from the Cross that we can use to forgive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Spend time with God in silence<\/strong><\/li>
  2. Make excuses for people that you feel may have wronged you <\/strong><\/li>
  3. Give whenever you can to the best of your ability<\/strong><\/li>
  4. Always remember your own shortcomings and sins  <\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Because\nof sinfulness, man lost the crown of perfection that God had granted him in the\nGarden of Eden, and instead crafted at Golgotha a new crown made of thorns, of\nthat very earth that God cursed when man fell. \nForgiveness is the love\nthat compelled our creator to bear this crown and cross whilst silencing its\nsuffering on our behalf. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Glory be to God forever. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Silent Lamb by Marina Giurgius \u2018Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.\u2019 Isaiah 53:7 A solider completely silent in the midst of war. Not a single war cry or victory scream. That same solider later forgives … Continue reading “The Silent Lamb”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[86,188,4,261,110,236],"class_list":["post-6188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-cross","tag-crucifixion","tag-forgiveness","tag-holy","tag-holy-week","tag-passion-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6213,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6188\/revisions\/6213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}