“THE MOUTH OF GOD”
Isaiah 53. 7-9
Lententide Midweek V: 5 April Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
The joy of the Liturgy is that it lets you say God's own words back to Him. The Mass allows you to reflect the light of Christ, through the Word, back to the source of that light. The Divine Service is like a never-ending antiphonal refrain echoed amongst the newly created mountains of the Lord. But the joy comes not from Mount Horeb. The joy comes not from Mount Gilboa, Tabor, Gerizim, Pisgah, Nebo, Carmel or Olivet. The purest note from God, the truest audible which resonates with the voices of angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, is sung from the lips of the Suffering Servant from the little hill, the meek mount of Calvary: "It is finished."
Hosanna in the highest.
The Son of God is the Word of God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the beginning God said "let there be Light." The Son of God is not only the Word of God; He is also the Light of the World. The Christ tells us of the love of the Father through His own words: spoken, taught, preached, and attached to water and wine, uttered from the upper room, the Tree, and the Mount of Ascension. The Christ shows forth the love of the Father through the Light which He shines on to you, and in to you, through the Holy Ghost enlightening the Christ through His Words and Sacraments.
Every word of Jesus is like a diamond; every word is like a spring of water in the desert, and every word is the total rescue from death.
But there comes a time when even the Word is silent. There is a time when the Divine Liturgy is "damped down" to stillness; the awe of reverence in the sight of such suffering as He underwent for all of you. His Words to you through Holy Scripture are Gospel, "Good News," but the actual event which is good is the actual event: the vicarious suffering and death of God the Son; the Atonement.
Isaiah wrote the prophecy in the same city in which it would later be fulfilled. "Yet He opened not His mouth." The Christ was not there to debate and humiliate Caiphas; He was not there to dazzle with verbal jousts and ripostes the corrupt Herod; and Jesus was not there to impress the venal Judge Pilate with a convincing legal case protesting His innocence. Jesus was there to "get it done." Jesus was there to suffer and die. Jesus was there, as Isaiah wrote, to be the sacrificial lamb. Jesus was there to be slaughtered; butchered for His blood.
Christ only answered the necessary questions to proceed to the Cross. He let the Sanhedrin know that He was going soon to be seated at the Right Hand of Majesty and come on the clouds with the Glory which was always His; that He was Messiah. He let Pilate know that, yes; He was the King, the only King that really mattered.
Able to call down Twelve Legions of Angels from Heaven to defend Him in place of the Twelve Disciples who had fled; able to call down Fire and Brimstone, as He once had at Sodom and Gomorrah; able to Save Himself as the true "Lion of Judah" that He was, your Lord and God was the Suffering Servant, the meek and passive Lamb of God: "And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth."
You open your mouth far too often. You, who with the same mouth that He made, that He feeds, that He allows to read His Word, use it far to often to curse, swear, use profanity, gossip, complain, and attack. For all of your sinful noise and babble the Lord remained silent and did what had to be done. You boast and try to self-justify; He did not defend Himself and let His own obedience to the Father justify Himself. He spoke with His own precious Body as He endured the beating, mocking, spitting, hammering and hoisting. He spoke with His own holy Blood as He allowed it to flow from His wounds to cover and bathe all His sheep.
One of the hardest things it is to do for the modern individual is to be still; to be silent and listen and not talk, retort, come-back, or add one's own highly thought-of opinion. It's hard for the modern individual to admit his mistake, to swallow his pride and to "take it like a man." That modern individual isn't modern after all, he is "old Adam," he is you.
The Suffering Servant took your sin upon Himself and made no excuses, no mitigating circumstances or extenuating factors. "He was taken from prison and from judgment..." He was finally led away from the vicious scourgings in the Praetorium; He was finally contemptuously dismissed from the judgment seat of the Governor; and led away to the "Place of the Skull."
Our own skulls, our own heads seem far to often dominated by our large mouths, chattering tongues and self-lies. His Sacred Head, now wounded, was scarred and plated with jagged thorns and His sweet lips were bruised purple. And then, and then He opened His lips and with the mouth of God He spoke to you: "Father forgive him, forgive her;" "Today you will be with me in paradise;" "My God My God why hast Thou forsaken Me;" "I thirst;" "Into Thine hands I commend My spirit;" and the Words which bring you here week after week, Mass after Mass: "It is finished."
"It is finished." The evil from your mouths, which proceeds from your hearts, has been taken away, buried in the tomb, crucified in His Body and is gone. Now He places a new song into your hearts. He imparts His Spirit to you and makes you new again. He opens your lips and you declare His praise. Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.
In the Name of The Suffering + Servant