Matthew 26:62-66: in context

At his trial before the high priest, Jesus faces a barrage of false testimony against him. The high priest demands, have you no answer? What is this these testify against you? But Jesus stayed silent. He does not scramble to refute the lies, does not defend himself against the false charges, but stands in silence. Only when the high priest adjures him by the living God to say whether he is the Christ does Jesus speak, and then to bear witness to the truth of who he is, though he knows it will bring his condemnation.

Jesus' silence under false accusation is worth pondering. He was slandered, lied about, falsely charged, with every reason to defend himself, to refute the false witnesses, to argue his innocence. And he did not. He stayed silent, not out of weakness or defeat, but out of a settled trust, refusing to be drawn into an anxious scramble of self-defense before those determined to condemn him. He entrusted his cause to God rather than fighting to vindicate himself. As a lamb before its shearers is silent, Isaiah had foretold, so he did not open his mouth. His silence was the silence of one who had committed his vindication to the Father. There is something to learn here about how we respond to false accusation. Our instinct, when we are lied about, slandered, falsely charged, is to defend ourselves at once, to refute every falsehood, to argue and justify and prove our innocence, anxious to vindicate ourselves before those who accuse us. Jesus shows another way: a dignified silence that does not scramble to self-defense but entrusts its cause to God. When he was reviled, Peter says, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly. There is a place for answering falsehood, and Jesus did speak the truth when directly asked. But there is also a place for the silence that refuses to be drawn into anxious self-defense, that entrusts our vindication to God rather than fighting to secure it ourselves. This is not easy, for it means letting a falsehood stand for a time, bearing an accusation unanswered, trusting God to vindicate us in his time rather than vindicating ourselves. But it is the way of Christ, who stood silent before his accusers, entrusting his cause to the Father. Commit your way to the LORD, the psalm says; he will bring forth your vindication. When we are falsely accused, we need not always scramble to defend ourselves; we can, like Jesus, entrust our cause to God who judges justly, refusing the anxious self-defense that fights to vindicate itself, and trusting God to bring forth our vindication in his time.

When I am falsely accused, slandered, or lied about, do I scramble at once to defend myself, anxious to refute every falsehood and vindicate myself before my accusers, or can I learn from Jesus, who stayed silent under false testimony and entrusted himself to him who judges justly, to refuse the anxious self-defense that fights to secure its own vindication, and instead commit my cause to God, trusting him to bring forth my vindication in his time?