His Silence is Not His Absence

Apr 8, 2023

Don’t we like it when things are quiet?

Like when you are at the movies, you want the audience to be silent.

After 9 pm, you want your neighbors to be silent.

When watching the game at home, you want to watch in silence. At least I do.

You want your kids to be silent. Good luck with that!

But isn’t it odd that there are some situations where silence is not what you want?

The silence between your spouse, significant other, or friends makes it feel like something is off. That something is not right. Anybody?

Why is that? Perhaps because silence can come off as absence. It can often be interpreted as not being present.

The day after the crucifixion on Good Friday, one of the most horrific and confusing moments in history, there was silence on Saturday. More notably, it appeared that God was silent. The long-awaited Messiah, the savior of the world, is dead. Yet to people, God is dead silent on Saturday.

In Luke 23:53-56, it shares what the people were doing on that day.

“Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth, and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock. This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin.

As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.”

- Luke 23:53-56

Joseph retrieved Jesus’ body, and the women prepared to anoint him. The Romans were satisfied that this crazy ordeal stirring up the known world was finally silenced.

So what?

I get the powerful implication of Good Friday and Easter, but what lesson does Saturday provide for us?

Simply, His silence is not His absence.

As human beings, we tend to get antsy when God seems quiet, don’t we? We feel like we need to go and do something. To control something. But what a reminder God is always working and present even when we don’t see it.

I am a busybody. I need to keep doing and doing. So, it is hard to push the brakes. A few months ago, I felt the rush of life, so I woke up early to go hiking to go sit on a rock in… silence.