When God Goes Silent
What do you do when God goes silent? You’re talking to Him, but the conversation is more of a monologue than a dialogue. You need something, and you’re not sure how to get it. You’ve asked God, not just once or twice, but more times than you can count. And still, nothing.
This is the position the 11 Disciples (1 didn’t quite stick it out) found themselves in on a Saturday some 2000 years ago. The One they’d left everything to follow was dead, foiling their plan and destroying their hope. And, on top of that, there was no fresh word or encouragement from Heaven on this sorrowful Saturday.
Silent Saturday, interposed between “Good” (the validity of the term ‘good’ depends whether you’re us or Jesus, for what was good for us wasn’t so good for Him) Friday, and Resurrection Sunday, has lessons far less talked about yet, in many ways, extraordinarily practical for us. Here are two of the reasons I believe that God will sometimes go silent.
To Remind You What He Already Said
One of the most infuriating things, to me, in all of the Bible is the Disciples’ seemingly shared case of early-onset group-dementia. All throughout the Gospels are verses like Matthew 17: 22-23: “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.’” Or Luke 9:22: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Or Luke 24:7: “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”
Jesus could hardly be more clear with these men, and yet, when exactly what He says happens, the Disciples’ response is less than faith-filled. In Mark 16:10-11, after Mary Magdalene sees the Resurrected Jesus, this is what happens: “She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.” They didn’t believe her! It’s almost comical! He told them plainly throughout His ministry that this would happen, yet somehow, it was so preposterous to them that they couldn’t even believe it. My gut reaction is to judge them, until I begin to ask, honestly, where I would be within this story? Waiting for a fresh word “straight from Jesus,” unwilling to believe anything else?
But why would God have needed to speak on Saturday?He’d already said everything He’d needed to say, and, more importantly, the Disciples had already heard all that they’d needed to hear. They didn’t need another word; they needed to remember the one they already had. I wonder, if this isn’t a Word for the Western Church; we have more sermons on YouTube than we could watch in 100 lifetimes, and many of us watch more than one per week.We have nearly 500 translations of the Bible in English, available not just within the covers of a book we need to carry, but within a number of free apps in our pockets Perhaps it’s not our lack of words from God, but our inability to remember them, that cause us to feel like He’s distant. And, through that lens, maybe silence is a gift, as the lack of a new word leads us to think back to something God had been trying to tell us all along.
Perhaps it’s not our lack of words from God, but our inability to remember them, that cause us to feel like He’s distant.
To Build Anticipation
One of my all-time favorite things (and one of the things I’m missing most in this era of social distancing) is live music. Spotify is great, and being able to watch a band’s performance on YouTube is nice, but there’s nothing like being in the room. There’s something about waiting in line for a while, then, finally, mercifully, the doors open and you head in. You scout out the best spot in the venue (General Admission shows are the best) and head over with your crew. Music comes through the speakers in the partially-lit room for a while, often playing artists similar to the one you’re seeing. Then, all at once, the lights go out, the music stops, and the room undergoes a transformation in mere milliseconds. From a general buzz of conversation intermingled with a soundtrack played through speakers to an easily-missed nanosecond of silence which is almost immediately filled with shouts of anticipation. The silence means the band is coming.
What crowds at concerts understand intuitively is something we may all do well to remember: silence should build your anticipation. The band is about to come out. Or, to translate the lesson to our discussion, God is about to move. As people who have seen Silent Saturday from Sunday, we should understand better than anyone: God’s silence is a set-up for something spectacular! His silence on Saturday brought forth Resurrection on Sunday! Can I ask you: what might be on the other side of His silence in your life? Jesus didn’t say He had the power to do resurrection; He said “I am the Resurrection” (John 11:25). What situation in your life that God has been silent about might He be preparing to bring Resurrection to?
God’s silence is a set-up for something spectacular!
God’s silence isn’t a sign of his absence. In fact, the Spirit of God may be nearer in silence than ever, reminding you what He’s already said, and building anticipation for what He’s about to do. Lean in to the silence on Saturday; you never know what Sunday might bring.