Scripture

They stripped Him {Jesus} and put a scarlet robe on Him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand. Then they knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on Him, and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again.

~Matthew 27:28-30, NIV

Quote

Humans being are never less like God than when they are dehumanizing another human being.

~Calvin Miller

I know the trial of Jesus is history and for that I give thanks, but it angers my spirit every time I read this passage. The bad thing is: these fools who mocked Jesus are us. As much as we want to, we cannot distance ourselves from their despicable behavior. I have never spit in anyones face, not even a helpless child. There is no way I would twist a crown of thorns on another’s head, but I have made fun of people which is a form of mockery. I do deplore what these high brow Jews and Romans did to Jesus and it would be easy to despise them for what they did, but I have to remind myself that I am a member of the human race and we have all sinned. I am not righteous. I am not pure. I am not free of sin so that I can pass judgment on another. After reading Miller’s commentary on the verses above, I vowed to be careful not to mock another human being.

Miller mentioned something that stirred my mind and got me to thinking: “The naked are the weak. It is the powerful that wear the clothes.” I had never thought about it this way. When the Nazis transported the Jews to the concentration camps, they stripped them naked. They were lined up like sheep to the slaughter without one shred of clothing. Corrie Tin Boon hide her NT under her arm pit. Can you imagine such humiliation? I can handle being naked before God but not before people. My body is not something anyone would want to see and I would feel incredible shame to be stripped of my clothing. They stripped Jesus which may be the ultimate humiliation. Let me tell you what is incredible about this historical event: Jesus, the source of life, was giving them the breath and energy to do what they were doing. He could have taken their breath. He could have made them as limp as a dish rag. They mocked Him by giving Him a reed for a scepter. Little did these fools know, He was the KING of kings and that they would stand before Him a second time, and when that happens, they will bow. There will be no mocking Jesus on that day.

So there are two lessons here: don’t mock, belittle or humiliate others and appreciate Jesus for making Himself weak in order to save sinners like us.

Extra

In times like these I am prone to look at my weather app more than once a day. My app says 81 is the high today and a 38% chance of rain this evening and 40% over night. June’s app has taken the rain out of the forecast. Who knows which is right or if either are viable. We need a rain. I try not to think about it. I know one thing, I am going to enjoy it when it comes.

Robbie Elliott’s mother’s COLS is Saturday at Valhermoso Baptist Church.  I think visitation is 11:00-1:00 and the service at 1:00. Soy Taylor’s service is next Thursday at Grand Bay. I think it is at 12:00 noon.

Another good crowd for Mid-week service. This is like three or four weeks in a row that we have had good attendance. We are doing an INTRODUCTION to CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS and we are using C.S. Lewis book MERE CHRISTIANITY. I have not heard any feed back. I am willing to give it a try but if the response is not positive, we will pull the plug.

If you want to give to the Soy Taylor fund {to get his body back to the states, you can give on Facebook or through Danville Baptist Church. Go to the DBC webb page and it will give you instruction. If you want to give cash, take it to the DBC office.

God bless you and thanks for reading the blog.