There are times in life when everyone faces a time of mocking or at the very least, a time when comments made about you and how you do things are negative. How does that feel? It hurts, doesn’t it. Why does this happen? Why are kids and grownups so cruel to each other? We are human and humans sin. Nobody likes everybody. Sad, but true.
Jesus knows how you feel when you are mocked and made fun of for what you wear, who you are or for just walking the face of this earth. He knows your heart. He knows the heart of our mockers. He went through much worse for us so our debt of all our sin could be paid in full. Read this next passage slowly, gratefully and carefully…
Matthew, The Message
The Crucifixion
27-31 The soldiers assigned to the governor took Jesus into the governor’s palace and got the entire brigade together for some fun. They stripped him and dressed him in a red toga. They plaited a crown from branches of a thornbush and set it on his head. They put a stick in his right hand for a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mocking reverence: “Bravo, King of the Jews!” they said. “Bravo!” Then they spit on him and hit him on the head with the stick. When they had had their fun, they took off the toga and put his own clothes back on him. Then they proceeded out to the crucifixion.
32-34 Along the way they came on a man from Cyrene named Simon and made him carry Jesus’ cross. Arriving at Golgotha, the place they call “Skull Hill,” they offered him a mild painkiller (a mixture of wine and myrrh), but when he tasted it he wouldn’t drink it.
35-40 After they had finished nailing him to the cross and were waiting for him to die, they whiled away the time by throwing dice for his clothes. Above his head they had posted the criminal charge against him: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Along with him, they also crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left. People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament: “You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days—so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you’re really God’s Son, come down from that cross!”
41-44 The high priests, along with the religion scholars and leaders, were right there mixing it up with the rest of them, having a great time poking fun at him: “He saved others—he can’t save himself! King of Israel, is he? Then let him get down from that cross. We’ll all become believers then! He was so sure of God—well, let him rescue his ‘Son’ now—if he wants him! He did claim to be God’s Son, didn’t he?” Even the two criminals crucified next to him joined in the mockery.
45-46 From noon to three, the whole earth was dark. Around midafternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
47-49 Some bystanders who heard him said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” One of them ran and got a sponge soaked in sour wine and lifted it on a stick so he could drink. The others joked, “Don’t be in such a hurry. Let’s see if Elijah comes and saves him.”
50 But Jesus, again crying out loudly, breathed his last.
51-53 At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep in their graves were raised. (After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)
54 The captain of the guard and those with him, when they saw the earthquake and everything else that was happening, were scared to death. They said, “This has to be the Son of God!”
55-56 There were also quite a few women watching from a distance, women who had followed Jesus from Galilee in order to serve him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the Zebedee brothers.
Matthew spares us the gruesome details of the Romans way of total humiliation and extreme agony of nailing flesh to a cross. He just can’t seem to bring himself to that point. Even those of us who have studied the “Roman way” of keeping people in line, still cannot imagine the depth of Jesus pain in the process of paying our debt of sin.
There is nothing that on this earth that will happen to you that Jesus has not gone through for you. Whatever your facing now, He faces it with you in this imperfect world. He knows, cares, and unconditionally loves you. He loves your enemies, too. He longs for all people to come back to God through the blood that was shed for all. Knowing this changes us, transforms us. It causes us to pray for our enemies in a new way.
Again, we ask, What will we do with Jesus? Are WE mockers? I pray not…
Dear Heavenly Father, The depth of your love is too great for our small minds to imagine, but we try. We drawn closer and closer to you when we stop and think about what you have done for us. We believe. I believe and I want you to know, I love you back. But you know that already. Wow, what peace to know you and walk with you. May others see You in us and be drawn back to You.
Father, today I want to avoid the sin that often entangles me, and I desire to see clearly the righteous acts that You would have me to do. I pray that you would strengthen my faith as I focus on You, and that You would give me the wisdom to align my priorities properly. I want my heart to be in sync with Your heart, so help me to sow righteousness in all that I do today! In the strong Name of Jesus, I pray! Amen.
