Open mouth; immediately insert foot. Sound familiar? We have all done it at one time or another. We have all said things when it would have been best for us simply to keep quiet.

Keeping quiet is not one of the virtues of people today. We may be the loudest, noisiest, brashest generation that has ever inhabited the face of the earth. From television and radio to the noises of man’s machines, with loud music, vehicles, airplanes, and equipment all adding to the din. All this noise exacts its toll.

Yet the greatest damage is done by the sounds emitted by that small but powerful organ the tongue (see James 1:26; 3:5-9). It is our tongue which gets us into trouble when we do not keep quiet. Who could possibly count all of the sins we commit with our tongues? Sins against the Second Commandment are the misuse and profanation of God’s holy name. Who could keep track of all the curses uttered in our streets and even in our homes? Who could number the times when individuals have frivolously called for God to damn people, not realizing the horror that hell does exist and that the damned are consigned to torment there for eternity? With the tongue we curse people, whom God had originally created in His own image (James 3:9), and for whom Christ has died so they may not be damned, but be saved. "Out of the same mouth come blessing and curse. My brothers, this should not be "(James 3:10).

Consider our infractions against the Fourth Commandment: words of disrespect for the father and mother who brought us into this world and nurtured us with love. We may have uttered words that wounded their hearts and pierced their souls. The Fourth Commandment extends to all in authority—our boss, our government and its leaders, and all those whom God has placed over us. Instead of biting our lips and keeping quiet when we should, how often have we been insolent? Sometimes we get away with it. But occasionally the boss overhears the whispered conversation, sees the incriminating memo or nasty e-mail, and the words come back to haunt us.

Perhaps most often violated verbally is the Eighth Commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Churches may be breeding grounds for gossip. Just because something is true does not give us license to blab it around when that harms our neighbor. Moreover, gossip tends to spawn unkind and untrue stories. We make uncharitable judgments about people’s motives, misinterpret their actions, defame their character, harm their reputation, and sully their good name. Instead of putting the best construction on things, how much more fun "how much more tantalizing and titillating it is" to put the worst construction on things. How tempting it is to put a new twist on the story, to bend the boring truth just enough to keep it interesting, instead of keeping quiet like we know we should.

We need to learn to keep quiet. This is true in our relationships with our fellow human beings, and in our relationship with God. We need times of quietness before God too.. God likes to hear our prayers, but He also likes for us simply to keep quiet and listen to His Word. In Psalm 46:10 (MT 46:11) God says, "Be quiet, and know that I am God!"

God tells us about our suffering Savior, whose silence atoned for all our sins of speech. No one in the history of the world has had more justification to complain than Jesus Christ. But instead of protesting when "He was oppressed," “He humbled Himself and did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Our verse repeats that last line to drive home the point: "Like a lamb, He was brought to the slaughter, and like a ewe which is silent before her shearers, so He did not open His mouth."

The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy is in the Gospels. When they came to arrest Jesus, He could have called on His Father to send legions of angels to fight off the mob, yet Jesus kept quiet. When false accusations were brought against Him by false witnesses during His trials before the high priest Caiaphas and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus made no reply. In agony on the cross, Jesus suffered silently, uttering only seven brief sentences.

Jesus kept the Second Commandment. He did not misuse God’s name by calling for God to damn those (including us) who deserved it. As Jesus writhed in agony, He did not curse those who crucified Him. Instead, He prayed quietly, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Jesus silently laid down His life as an offering, that those who had lost the image of God may be restored to the righteous image of God by His grace in His righteous Son (cf. James 3:9).

Jesus kept the Fourth Commandment by respecting those in authority (despite their manifold sin of condemning a just man). Jesus had good reason to address some choice words to Caiaphas, the high priest, as the false witnesses brought false accusations of false (nonexistent) sins against Jesus. He certainly would have been justified had He expressed contempt for the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate—the coward who washed his hands of responsibility for his own decision, setting the murderer Barabbas free, and sentencing Jesus to death even though he knew Christ was innocent. But Jesus respected Pilate’s God-given authority as a government official: "You would have no authority over Me unless it was given you from on high" (John 19:11). So during His trial before Pilate, Jesus kept silent.

Jesus could have said much in criticism of others. He knows full well our sins of word and deed. He associated with tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners. Yet Jesus did not spread gossip or rumors about them, true as they would have been. When people brought the woman caught in adultery before Jesus, He said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more" (John 8:11). Instead of calling for her execution, according to the Law, Jesus, restrained in speech, acquitted her.

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to forgive the world. Jesus could have spent His whole life uttering words of damnation, yet instead He spoke words of salvation and consolation. And when the time came for Jesus Christ to lay down His life as the ransom for our sins "including those of our speech"Jesus Christ kept quiet. As we just sang in the sermon hymn ("A Lamb Alone Bears Willingly"), the Lamb of God went to the slaughter willingly and silently.

Jesus suffered in silence to make up for all the times when we should have kept quiet, but we did not. Jesus’ mute suffering atoned for all our cursing, our shouting, our disrespectful words, our gossip and slander. Jesus’ willing silence has made amends for all the times we have put our foot in our mouth for our careless words, our hasty speech, our rash talk.