In the various accounts of our Lord’s earthly ministry we find three occasions when He declined to answer those who appealed to Him or questioned Him.

1. First, in Matt. 15:21-28, there is the Gentile woman with trouble. Her daughter was possessed of a demon and in her trouble she appealed to the Lord to help her, “but He answered her not a word.” We need to realize that Jesus of Nazareth He had “come only unto the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” – not Gentiles (Matt 15:24, 10:5-6). Yet, finally, in His grace He did help her, but not until He had taught her the lesson that as a Gentile she had no claim on Him who was to be Israel’s Messiah. As Romans 1:28 tells us, the Gentiles had been “given up” because “they (the Gentiles) did not wish to retain God in their knowledge.” In this connection we Gentiles today should read carefully Ephesians 2:11-12 (below) and see how utterly “without hope” we Gentiles are apart from “the grace of God.”

Ephesians 2:11-12 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

1. Next there was a Jewess, in trouble of a different kind. She had been caught in adultery and was brought to Him for judgment (John 8:1-11). Unlike the Gentile woman, she belonged to the chosen race, Israel, and possessed God’s holy Law, a distinct advantage — unless you are a lawbreaker. When the Pharisees accused her and asked Jesus what they should do, since Moses specified stoning in such a case. First Jesus answered them not, writing in the dirt with His “finger.” The “finger of God” is always a symbol of the Holy Spirit speaking (cf. Luke 11:20). Only then did Jesus speak in wisdom, saying ‘let him who is among you who has not sinned cast the first stone.’ The woman’s accusers, convicted in heart, then walked away. Thus the Lord, in grace, helped her but not until He had demonstrated that the Law is the great leveler of mankind, bringing all in guilty before God (Rom. 3:19).
2. Then finally we find how it was that our Lord Himself could show grace — and do it justly — to all men, both Jewish and Gentile. In this third instance we find the Lord Himself in trouble. On trial for His life before the representatives of Hebrew and Roman law, He is accused of all sorts of wicked crimes. But on this occasion too, He declines to answer.

First Caiaphas, the High Priest, asked Him: “Answerest Thou nothing? What is it which these witness against Thee? But Jesus held His peace…” (Matt. 26:62-63).

Next Pilate, the Gentile judge, said: “Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee? And He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly” (Matt. 27:12-14).

Why would the Lord Jesus decline to answer and defend Himself?

It was Because He had come into the world specifically to die for man’s sins. Had the sinners of all ages been there to accuse Him of their sins, He would still have remained speechless, for He stood there as man’s sin bearing representative, so that all mankindas sinner, Jew and Gentile, might be “justified freely by God’s Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).