Speech and silence

My April newsletter column for the churches...


We have four different accounts of Jesus’ life from four different authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each story is just a little different from the others, which doesn’t mean that they aren’t true. It just means that the authors write from different perspectives, focus on different themes, and notice different details of the same events.

On Easter Sunday, we usually hear John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus. And it’s a great story. Matthew and Luke each tell the Easter story beautifully as well, but I’ve developed a fondness for Mark’s version.

The way Mark tells the story of Jesus, his disciples are often confused. They fail to understand what Jesus is trying to teach them, and when he tells them to keep quiet about his work, they just can’t seem to do it. After he cured a deaf man, “Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it” (Mark 7:36).

Then, when the women find the empty tomb, the angel tells them to go and tell the disciples what they have seen. So what do they do? According to the shorter version of Mark’s ending, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:7-8).

So, in Mark’s gospel, the followers of Jesus can’t seem to keep quiet when told to do so, but neither can they manage to speak when they’re supposed to do that! (Of course, the women at the tomb eventually managed to tell the others what they had seen; otherwise the story wouldn’t have gotten to us.)

But isn’t it encouraging to know that God can work through such imperfect people? People who so often can’t get it right? People who speak when they should keep silence and keep silence when they should speak?

It’s a reminder that God can and does work through each of us, in spite of our failures and flaws. None of us gets it right all the time, but still God does his work, and we are each a part of it. I pray that the Spirit inspires you in telling the story of Jesus, and I wish you the joy of knowing that your imperfect efforts are never in vain.