Perceptions #200133

"THE SILENCE OF GOD"

Text: Matthew 15:21-28

by Norman Bales

Matthew records the story of a Canaanite woman, who asked Jesus to have mercy on her. Her daughter suffered terribly as the result of demon possession. She was a marginal, secondary figure in the story of Jesus, but she helps us understand God, especially in these times. She was just a poor Gentile woman who lived in area that we now call Syria, not far from modern day Haifa. She didn't even belong to the nation of Israel, but she heard Jesus say, "Woman you have great faith." What had she done to cause Jesus to give recognition to her faith? She simply reached out for him and placed her trust in him.

Anyone who struggles with the issue of faith ought to pay attention to this woman's story. The most striking statement in this entire text occurs in verse 23. "Jesus did not answer a word." There are times, when like this woman, we feel the urge to lay our need before God, but God does not immediately respond. As we contemplate the horrible acts that were committed against people in the United States on September 11, 2001, we realize that we are in a period of time when God has not immediately responded. We have not heard from him. At least if we have heard from Him, many of us did not pick up on the message.

In the midst of great carnage in World War II, Helmut Thielicke said "The silence of God is the greatest test of our faith." Thielicke was a German preacher. In the midst of the battle of Stalingrad, he spoke these words to his congregation.

Is not God silent about Stalingrad? What do we hear above and under its ruins? Do we not hear the roar of the artillery, the tumult of the world and the cities of the dying? But where is the voice of God? When we think of God, is it not suddenly so quiet, so terribly quiet, in the witch's kitchen of this hell, that one can hear a pin drop even though grenades are bursting all around us? And even if I think I hear God - hear him in judgment as the one by whom the proud waves are stayed (Job. 38:11) - He is silent again the next moment when I have to ask, Why this man, my brother or my husband. (From Thielicke's book, The Silence of God. The sermon was preached during the battle of Stalingrad in 1943. It was stenographically recorded, but the Third Reich forbade publication. After the war a collection of his sermons was gathered and printed under the title, The Silence of God).

All of you have to do is change the word "Stalingrad" to The World Trade Center or The Pentagon, and the questions are the same. The questions are human and understandable. John the Baptist asked questions like that from Herod's prison. We're not the only ones who have wondered about the silence of God. And although we're afraid to come right out and say it, maybe deep down we're asking, "Lord, how long are you going to keep us in suspense?"

Men would not keep silent the way God does. They can only stand so much bloodshed, so much suffering. But does that mean they are more merciful than God? No, it means they have less patience. If we are willing to wait for God and suffer patiently through his silence, we have an opportunity to learn something of his higher thoughts. After all his thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways.

We are called upon to trust God and to love Jesus even though we cannot understand the heavenly silence, even though from our viewpoint, we can see no logical reason why God shouldn't grant our request. What possible good can be served by allowing the continuation of human suffering and carnage? We have no word from God on that subject. Oh, we know why wars take place. God doesn't get us into war. We get into war because there's something wrong in peoples thinking. James writes in James 4:1-3, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Tough language, to be sure, but words that need to sink deep within our hearts.

But why does God remain silent in the midst of such carnage? Thielicke asked that question in 1943 and remember that his audience was Germany, not America. In response to it, he said, "Perhaps God has first to be jerked away from us complacent Western Christians, like a rug from under our feet if we are to be re-awakened to this surprise." What kind of surprise did he have in mind? The surprise was that the kingdom of God can only be entered when we humble ourselves and throw ourselves unconditionally on his mercy.

During the Persian Gulf War, I heard a newspaper reporter commenting on the difference in religious attitudes between the people of the Middle East and the people of America. Of course the religion of the Middle East is the Muslim religion. For the most part here in America, we claim that it's a Christian nation. But the difference is that to the people of the Middle East, their religion means everything. Every decision of life is made in light of their religious commitments. Here in the United States, the very opposite is true. We go to court to keep religion from being a part of life. We consider a person a fanatic who allows his religion to affect the way he makes decisions about life. And as I hear this I shake my head in sadness and wonder how we ever messed it up so badly.

Perhaps we need to reassess our relationship with the Lord and ask ourselves if we trust him implicitly. We must ask ourselves if we are willing to continue trusting when it seems to us that he is silent, to ask ourselves if we have the will to continue trusting until he ultimately blesses us. Do we long for Him in this hour of international crisis, the same way the Canaanite woman longed for him in her personal crisis?

Nobody knows how long this crisis will last. Nobody knows the extent of sacrifice that will be demanded. Nobody knows what violent turns it may take, even how our own lives might be affected by the actions of terrorists. The world has become more dangerous for all of us.

The best response that we make both now and in whatever may come in the weeks and months ahead is the cry of the Canaanite woman. "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me."

top of page    previous article    Perceptions Index