Read: Mark 15:42-47
He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. (Rev. 19:13)
Sometimes, the most powerful moment in a symphony comes in a beat of rest. The instruments build to a climax, and then suddenly the hall goes silent. Every member of the audience holds their breath. The orchestra waits for the conductor’s signal. Then the sound resumes, and the piece concludes. The silence is part of the music.
Jesus is the Word of God. He is the word God has been speaking into the world from the very “beginning” (John 1:1). Yet, on a Saturday in springtime more than two thousand years ago, that word went silent. The Word of God was dead. They took his body down from the cross, “wrapped him in the linen shroud,” and “laid him in a tomb” (Mark 15:46). These verses give us an important pause. The silence is part of the music. We need to feel, with Joseph of Arimathea and Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses, what it would be like to live in a world where the Word of God was silent. Only then are we ready for what comes next, when the music resumes.
Here in the last week before Christmas, we may also need a moment of silence. Before we celebrate the joy that God spoke his Word into the world in such a unique way at Jesus’s birth, we may need to pause and be still. How can you find a breath of rest today?
As you pray, ask God to help you hear his Word in the silence.
About the Author
Sarah Sanderson is the author of The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate. She lives with her husband and their four teenage children in Oregon.
