Sometimes
silence says a lot, and other times people read too much into it.
I have met challenges on four areas to do with Jesus' supposed failure to speak. Three of them are moral issues, which we will look at now, and one is theological, which we will look at in a later blog post.
1) He never mentioned anything about homosexuality
The people who make this point are
usually condemning Christians for their view that homosexual behaviour is
immoral. They say, "Why are you getting so upset? Jesus never said a word
about it!" This argument is way off the mark for (at least) three reasons:
(i) It ignores the
fact that Jesus believed the Hebrew Scriptures
Jesus of Nazareth taught that the
Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) were the Word of God, and because the
Hebrew Scriptures condemn homosexual behaviour as sinful, the (supposed) silence
of Jesus on the topic indicates His agreement, not His
disagreement.
(ii) It ignores the
fact that Jesus inspired the Hebrew Scriptures
Jesus of Nazareth is the God of
Israel. He is the one who is responsible for the Bible's teaching on sexual
morality, so it is false to say He never said anything about it - He did, in
the Old Testament.
(iii) It ignores
what He taught
In Matthew 15:19 the Lord Jesus
taught that all sexual activity outside of marriage is defiling, and in Matthew
19:4-6 He defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. There is no
doubt, Christ weighed in on the subject of homosexual behaviour, and He was
against it.
2) He never mentioned anything about abortion
The point people are making here is
similar to the last one - Christians shouldn't get so upset about abortion
because Jesus never mentioned it. But by that logic we shouldn't worry about
sex trafficking, wife-beating, drug use and paedophilia because He never
specifically mentioned those things. I hope everyone can agree that it makes no
sense to say if He didn't condemn something by name He approved of it.
As we have already seen, if the Old
Testament teaches something, then that reflects Christ's view, and Psalm
139:13-15 affirms the humanity of the child in the womb. David doesn't say that
the thing that was being formed in his mother's womb became him,
but it was him.
Also, even if we didn't have Psalm
139 and other passages to refer to, we can still conclude Jesus was against
abortion. I think everyone can agree that Jesus was against murder. He referred
explicitly to the sixth commandment. Murder is the unjustified taking of human
life. If abortion is the unjustified taking of human life then Christ was
against it. So, is that what abortion is? Well, it certainly is the taking of
life - there's no doubt that something is being killed, and there's no doubt
what is being killed is human life (what else could it be? It's not canine or
feline, it is human). And the taking of this human life is not justified - we
don't allow people to kill human beings for the reasons people have abortions.
Neither financial difficulties nor traumatic circumstances give people freedom
to kill their babies. Abortion is the unjustified taking of human life, and so
He did speak against it.
3) He never said anything about slavery
This statement comes from critics of
Jesus - "He wasn't that good, He never even condemned slavery!" Such
people are taking a very shallow view of the ministry of Christ. He
taught that we were to do to others what we would have them do to us (which
would mean you wouldn't enslave or sell anyone); He said we are to love our
enemies; He said He came not be served but to serve, and that the greatest in
the kingdom is the one who is servant of all. He didn't start a bloody
revolution to overthrow what was a universal institution, but started a
revolution in the heart. Slavery just doesn't fit with Jesus' view of humanity,
and His life and teachings have done more to eradicate slavery from the world
than anything else.
Don't be too hasty to draw conclusions from silence - you are maybe just not listening.
