The Silence of Anger
Scripture Reading — John 1:1-14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14
A man once told me that when his wife gets angry with him, she gives him the "silent treatment." She just refuses to talk to him--sometimes for days.
When we fight or argue, what often follows is silence. Hostility breeds silence. Prior to the fall into sin, Adam and Eve had talked openly with God in the Garden of Eden. But after they sinned, they were sent out of the garden and no longer spoke with God in the same way. To the generations that followed God spoke mainly through prophets, but even that was relatively rare. God's children tried and tested God's patience again and again, and if you read the words of the prophets, you can sense the tension as the people repeatedly failed to listen. Finally, God's voice grew silent, and by the time of the writing of the New Testament, God had not spoken for almost 400 years.
In the New Testament God breaks that silence. John 1:14 states, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." The Word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ.
It was because of his great love that God came to us in Christ. We can be thankful for that, but we can also remember that when hostility and enmity exist in our lives, because of Christ we can break the silence and offer what God has offered us: a word of grace.
Father in heaven, we are grateful for the grace you have given us in Christ. Help us to commit to sharing words of grace with others as well. In Jesus' name, Amen.
About the author — Joel Sheeres
Rev. Joel Sheeres is the pastor at First Christian Reformed Church in Crown Point, Indiana. He and his wife, Christine, have three children. Pastor Sheeres has previously served at Faith Christian Reformed Church in Elmhurst, Illinois.
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