Even though I do it for a living, I think that talking about God is one of the most challenging things we are called to do. In the first place, we are limited by our perspective. Our trying to describe God is a little like a fish trying to describe water. But even more significant, when we talk about God, all we really have is words—and words will always fall short of capturing a full understanding of the Almighty.

Still, words can help to point us in the right direction. For example, if there is one thing that we can say about God with absolute certainty, it is that the Creator wants to have a relationship with us. We hear this word in the story of Adam and Eve. We hear it in God’s covenant with Abraham. We hear it through the prophets. And obviously, we hear it most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ.

The problem is that, while God has continued to speak of this desire for a relationship with us, we haven’t always been in the mood to listen. Jesus ended many of his parables with the phase, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” But we have a lot of trouble with that, don’t we? When God speaks, most of us become selective listeners. We hear what we want to, and then tune out the rest.

Which may be why at the end of his life, Jesus spoke very few words. If you take all of the gospels together, he spoke only seven times from the cross. On the one hand, he was probably trying to conserve his breath, since crucifixion is actually death by suffocation. But on the other hand, I believe that his willingness to die for us speaks louder than anything he could have possibly said.

There is an old African-American spiritual, “He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word,” that goes like this—“They crucified my Lord, and He never said a mumbalin’ word … They nailed Him to a tree, and He never said a mumablin’ word … He bowed His head and died, and He never said a mumablin’ word.”

After centuries of speaking to us, heaven went silent on Good Friday afternoon. But then again, what more could God have said? Christ’s outstretched arms on the cross speak volumes—and no additional words are necessary.