(3) The silence of shame (Jn 8"). The Pericope Adulterce, though not in the original Gospel of St. John, must have belonged to a very early tradition. It is the birth of tiie Christian grace of modesty. When confronted with the woman, Jesus is silent, stoops down, and writes upon the ground. He averts His face from the shameful spectacle. He is filled with pity and sorrow for the woman who has lost the virgin glory of her womanhood, and Mith indignation against the men whose shameless indelicacy in exposing her fault shows that they utterly fail to realize in what the true gravamen of jier offence consists. To the pure soul of Jesus the
in of tlie one is greater than the sin of the other.
ence His words, ' He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone at her.' The rebuke
strikes home, the sense of shame flushes their
lieeks, and the woman's accusers silently steal away.
(4) The silence of indignation (Mt 26''^ Mk 14*"). Jesus, after His apprehension, was first led before Caiaphas, the higli priest. Caiaphas sought to incriminate Him by bringing against Him witnesses wlio made garbled and irrelevant statements of words they had heard Him utter. The high priest urged Him to say something in His defence, but Jesus held His peace. It was tiie silence of indigna- tion against the utter mockery of His trial and the attitude of tlie time-serving president of the Court.
(5) The silence of contempt (Lk 2^^). Herod was a different type. He is the repi-esentative of super- stitious profligacy. Herod was a weak man, with a conscience certainly, but a conscience that could be touclied only by his superstitious fears. He liked to have a saint under his patronage, provided the saint would be pliable enough to leave his ])atron's vices unrebuked. He had tried John tlie Baptist, but that experiment had failed, and tiow he would try Jesus. And so he questioned Him in many words, but Jesus answered liim nothing. Here is apparently a seeker after truth to wliom Jesus has nothing to say. It is not so. The gospel refuses tiie patronage of the vicious. Jesus has nothing to say to craven superstition seeking to I'ondone its own vices by taking religion under its protection.
(6) Th" silence of self -containment (Jn lO**). Pilate, again, represents aiiotiier and a liigiier type. To him Jesus opened Himself more fully than to any of His judges. He recognized in him one whose
instincts were those of a capable and genuine ruler, and He sympathized witii the dilemma in which Pilate was placed. Though the final decision rested with Pilate, he was the least guilty of all who were responsible for the tragedy of Calvary (Jn 19"). In Pilate's soul a great struggle was going on. He was looking for a way of escape from a diflicult situation, but he dared not take the only way that true magnanimity required. He dared not be true to his own high function of asserting the impartial justice of Imperial Rome, and the result was moral ruin. It is always so with Jesus. To the soul that once recognizes His claims no half measures are possible. It is all or nothing — absolute loyalty or a treason that leads downwards to the pit. And Jesus had a clear jierception of the character of the Roman ruler, wlio alone had insight enough to recognize the essential greatness of his prisoner. One imperial soul met another. On the plane on which they met there Avas no difficulty of intercommunication. Jesus has no hesitation in asserting His royalty and His claim to be the Revealer of eternal truth. Pilate has culture enough at least to understand what He means, and his scepticism is the scepticism of sad- ness and perplexity rather than of scorn. But when Pilate, struck with the largeness of soul displayed by Jesus, touches on the higher mysteries, He is silent. To the question, ' Whence art thou ? ' Jesus has nothing to say. It is not that He fears to commit Himself. It is simply that He cannot give an answer that would be intelligible to Pilate.
(7) The silence of self-absorption. There have been many commentaries on the seven words of Jesus on the cross, but His silence there is as striking as His speech. Jesus has nothing to say to the jeers and mockery of the infuriated people, or to the taunts of priests and Pharisees. He is self-absorbed. For the self-hood of Jesus is His mission. His purpose, the idea of His life. And even in the agony of the cruelest death the malig- nity of man has ever devised. He is not shaken out of this self-absorption. His words have all reference to the central idea which constitutes His earthly existence. Pity for sinning humanity, love for those whose hearts are His, His attitude to the Father with whom all along He has realized His oneness, — these are the emotions that domi- nate His soul. There is not even the faintest trace of anger against those who have wreaked their vengeance upon Him. There is scarcely even a consciousness of their presence.
7. It is instructive to note the different valuation put upon speech and silence by Jesus and those who surrounded Him. Jesus silenced the Sad- ducees when they propounded to Him knotty points of theology (Mt 22^^), and suffered not the demons to speak (Mk \^). But when the multitude rebuked the blind men who cried importunately to Him at tlie gate of Jericho, Jesus listened to their appeal (Mt 20^') ; and when the disciples sought to silence tlie mothers who brought tlieir children to be blessed, Jesus encouraged them with one of His most striking and characteristic sayings (Mt 19'^, Mk 10^^ I.k 18''^). And, further, He who in the earlier ])art of His career carefully concealed His Messiahship from the people, on the critical occa- sion when He made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem gave an em])liatic refusal to silence the acclamations with which He was hailed by the people.