That sounds almost impossible in an age when it\u2019s all talk, talk, talk, giving opinions, and complaining about this and that. Passionate defenders of their opinions shout: \u201cSpeak up if you want your voice heard!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prophet Isaiah gave us inside information about what this day would look like 700 years before Jesus\u2019 birth. \u201cHe was as a sheep before the shearers Who opened not His mouth.\u201d (Isaiah 53:7). Jesus said nothing in His own defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How is that possible? Not for me! I have words to speak when I am misjudged or misunderstood. I want what I meant to be clear. After all, I am innocent. I am a good girl. I want the records set straight! I am a passionate defender of my opinion. You could vouch for me if you keep up with my daily \u201cwordy\u201d blogs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s amazing. Jesus does not defend Himself. Jesus has been up all night enduring absurd trials. He\u2019s been spit at, beaten and abused. He\u2019s been lied about. Tormented. But He never says a word. Herod has no proof of any criminal act on the part of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSilence is golden\u201d took on a whole new meaning. It was a picture of how Jesus handled adversity. Wonder how many of our arguments could be resolved by silence? 1 Peter 2:23 says \u201cHe did not retaliate when He was insulted, nor threaten revenge when He suffered. He left His case in the hands of God Who always judges fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter, an eyewitness, watched Him being scourged, a crown of thorns placed on His head, and nails driven into His hands and feet, said: \u201cHe did not retaliate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The litmus test for us is how we react when we\u2019re mistreated. The real test of our faith is often what we don\u2019t do. Our \u201clight\u201d might shine brighter by not saying anything at all. If we want to \u201cWWJD\u201d it, we best be following Jesus\u2019 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we followed His lead, we would say: \u201cIt\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s ALL about God. It\u2019s ALL about eternity.\u201d What if \u201cin the light of eternity\u201d were on our mind when we are about to blurt out words to defend ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, was Jesus a helpless victim on this \u201cGood Friday\u201d? Let\u2019s get real here \u2014 He was the Son of God. He had the power to call down a legion of angels to set Him free. He only had to say the word and all of heaven would have come to His aid. But He never said that word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was truly the Silent Savior who, having all power in His hands, decided not to use it. From the cross, Jesus saw the soldiers who mocked, scourged, tortured Him, and nailed Him to the cross. He thought about His disciples who deserted him and Peter who denied Him. He was thinking about us.
At the height of His physical suffering, He broke His silence to utter these words from the cross: \u201cFather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\u201d Luke 23:34. Jesus asks His Father to forgive, but it is by His very sacrifice on the cross that we can be forgiven!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could we possibly say to OUR enemies: \u201cI love you. I would rather die than hate you.” That is WJD \u2013 What Jesus DID. Oh, that we could follow His example daily as we ask ourselves the question \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WWJD, giving up our right to be right as we take up our own crosses and follow Him. I\u2019m writing WWJD, not with chalk, but a permanent marker on the billboards of my heart on this Good Friday and I pray: \u201cMake me more like You, Jesus. Make me more like You. Give me a heart that\u2019s filled with love. Make me more like You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus, thank You for making Good Friday\u2026.so, so good for us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That sounds almost impossible in an age when it\u2019s all talk, talk, talk, giving opinions, and complaining about this and that. Passionate defenders of their opinions shout: \u201cSpeak up if you want your voice heard!\u201d The prophet Isaiah gave us inside information about what this day would look like 700 years before Jesus\u2019 birth. \u201cHe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26410,1],"tags":[26405,26407,1210,1769,26408,419,1600,7241,26404,3317,40,26406,16792,22339,19270,1711,26409,504,16091,1414],"class_list":["post-17828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-death-on-the-cross","category-uncategorized","tag-as-a-sheeph","tag-aversity","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-did-not-retaliate","tag-eternity","tag-father","tag-father-forgive-them","tag-few-words","tag-good-friday","tag-inspiration","tag-misjudged","tag-mistreated","tag-misunderstood","tag-prophet-isaiah","tag-silence-is-golden","tag-silent-savior","tag-son-of-god","tag-speak-up","tag-wwjd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17839,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions\/17839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}