Evensong – 18th May 2025
Texts: Daniel 6:1-23
Mark 15:46-16:8
One of the themes that runs through our readings this evening, is silence.
When the American songwriter Paul Simon wrote “Sound of Silence”, he was exploring a sense of disillusionment and isolation. The narrator has no-one to talk to, and only feels connected to the darkness and his own loneliness.
Thirty-five years later, when Mexican composer Ernesto Cortazar wrote “Beethoven’s Silence”, it was to express ideas of distress and confusion but, ultimately, acceptance of a painful loss.
Both these pieces of music see silence as more than simply the absence of words. Silence is an entity in itself, with layers of meaning.
I’d like consider some of the aspects of silence that appear this evening.
***
Daniel, confronted with a horribly unjust punishment, didn’t fight his corner, or defend his point of view. He hadn’t done anything evil in itself. It’s fair to suppose he felt shocked and betrayed by the grisly death he was sent to. But from all we can tell in the story – and we’re given a fair amount of detail – he met it silently.
- Here’s a silence of faith – trusting that God is in control.
The next silence we come across is from the lions. Our version this evening said that “God had closed their mouths”; some versions say “God silenced their mouths”. Either way, with our mouth closed we’re pretty effectively silenced.
- Here’s a miraculous silence ordained by God, confirming his power and defending his people.
Our reading from Mark’s Gospel next shows us silence from a very different perspective – the breaking of it.
We know from John’s Gospel that Joseph of Arimathea had been a follower of Christ for some time; but “secretly, for fear of the Jews”. We know he was a good man, and Luke’s Gospel tells us he was “continually waiting for the kingdom of God” – the language[1] implies this is something that was on his mind at every chance; an “every waking moment” kind of waiting.
But he was afraid, and kept silent. It’s hard to blame him for that!
Curiously, Joseph chose to make his beliefs public straight after the horror of the Crucifixion. He can’t have been in any doubt, at that point, as to whether this was a safe thing to do – he’d just seen the Roman machine in all its brutality. But he’d also just seen the signs & wonders that accompanied the crucifixion, and they must have been pretty compelling.
Now Jesus’s body was hanging on the cross. Jewish custom mandated that bodies must be buried promptly. By Jewish law, even those condemned to death for some crime should be buried by night-time.
Having been too afraid of the Jews to follow Jesus openly, Joseph now found his courage – all in a rush, it seems! – and broke his silence. He went to Pilate to ask for the body, and as we know, arranged burial according to Jewish custom.
- Here’s a silence of fear, broken by courage and generosity – and perhaps, revelation.
Lastly, we have the women.
Flying the flag for my sex for a moment, women were some of the bravest people in the whole Crucifixion narrative. The men closest to Jesus betrayed him, went to sleep on him, denied him and fled from him, but the women remained steadfast.
I’m going to deviate a little, because it’s easy to dismiss, or at least minimise the courage shown by these women if we let ourselves think that women weren’t really at risk of Roman retaliation. Historically though, this doesn’t seem to be the case. There are many documented instances of women being crucified, both individually and as part of mass groups. Historical records provide some horribly graphic detail, which I am not going to inflict on you.
Although it seems that fewer women than men were crucified, that wasn’t any real protection. This makes sense thinking of our own society. New Zealand incarcerates fewer women than men, but that doesn’t protect me if I’m found guilty of a serious crime.
So, these women, who had been pretty brave throughout, went to anoint Jesus’s body. We have Mary Magdalene, who had good cause to love Jesus, another Mary – possibly his mother[2] – and Salome, mother of James & John – that same Salome who’d hoped to have her sons sitting either side of Christ.[3]
The women see a young man dressed in white, and he gives them a message to pass on. Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has risen!
***
It was a vital message, but the women were silenced.
We hear that they were alarmed. The word translated “alarmed” is ἐκθαμβεῖσθε (ekthambeisthe). It’s the same word used of Jesus’s distress at Gethsemane. It has a number of valid translations, and it’s one word that different Bible versions tend to translate quite differently. It means overwhelmed with wonder, or distressed, or alarmed, or awe-struck.
I suspect that given the harrowing few days the women had just endured, any and all of these words might equally apply!! In any case, it seems the young man in white was a bridge too far for these traumatised women, and they were silenced.
Not, we’re aware, for too long. It takes more than that to silence a woman! Because other Gospel narratives tell us that they did indeed speak to the disciples. The women spoke; the vital message was passed on.
- Here’s a silence of shock and trauma, broken by courage and obedience.
***
Silence isn’t the absence of voice or noise, and it certainly isn’t the absence of meaning.
Sometimes it’s a painful passage we must pass through; sometimes it’s a stand we need to take. Sometimes it’s a matter of letting God take control, and sometimes it’s a matter of letting ourselves take the pause, the time out that we need, before we can continue our journey. Sometimes we’re silenced by circumstances, and it seems God is nowhere in the picture – because we only see such a little part of the picture.
Sometimes it’s the rest we’re given, and sometimes it’s the burden we carry.
But, as we’ve learned from our readings this evening, human silence is no barrier to God. Sometimes, it may be the very thing that creates the space he needs to meet us in love, compassion, forgiveness and understanding.
Juli Meiklejohn
[1] It uses the periphrastic imperfect tense
[2] Mark 6:3 – names the same siblings
[3] In Mark & Matthew, but in Matthew, Salome makes the request; in Mark, James & John ask. Salome is only included in the story in Matthew