Mocking -Your fun at someone else’s expense

Who among us has not experienced something like this?  If we were not the instigator, we certainly laughed and encouraged the behavior.  Many of us have been the object of someone else’s “fun” and the entertainment for those observing.  Just this picture makes us laugh.  On the other hand, this picture makes us want the earth to open and swallow us up.

Jesus found Himself in this vicious realm.  In Matthew’s gospel, the writer paints a vivid picture of the depth of our Savior’s humiliation.  In Matthew 26:67 and Luke 22:64-64 we see the initial taunting of Jesus as He is blindfolded by soldiers for a “guessing game,” insulted, and then is not the ultimate degradation to have someone spit in your face?  Slap your face?  Pummel your face with fists so that your nose bleeds, your eyes swell shut, and you are tasting your own blood and cannot see or breath?  

Jesus tormentors were not satisfied with these insults.  They went a few steps further and while He is handcuffed, they strip off all His clothing and leave Him standing naked while they plot their next move of draping the “king” in a “royal cape” of purple, weave Him a “crown” of thorns that look like swords not stickers, find a reed for a “scepter” and force it into His holy hands, as they bow before Him.  I want to throw up this hurts my heart so much.  NO ONE came to His defense.  He stood “defenseless and silent before the shearers.”  (Isaiah 53:7)

Unfortunately, the mocking of Jesus and His humiliation were not complete.  Once He trudged up Calvary’s hill, He was once again, stripped naked for His clothing to be divided but the worst was gambling for His most prized possession: the cloak His precious Mother made for him right after they pierced His flesh with nails and hung His naked body on a cross for display.

“The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. 40 “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

41 The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. 42 “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! 43 He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.”  (Matthew 27:39-44)

I WISH He had come down off that cross and proved He could just to shut them up!  (I know that would have defeated the purpose but still……………)

In the course of a few hours, Jesus was humiliated, mocked, scorned, and ridiculed more than any other person ever has been.  So, yes, He has felt this most devastating verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse.  Yet, not a word of retaliation.  

Each time we have participated in the mocking/humiliation of another, we are guilty of a sin Jesus died for.  Yet again, something buried deep so I do not have to face it, has once again been unearthed for confession.  Again, I recognize I have hurt the image of God within another human being.  This is what the enemy loves to attack, the image and the character of God placed within each of us.

Father, forgive me!  I know the sting of hurtful taunts and yet, I too have been guilty of doing the same thing to another either directly or by standing idly by and not coming to their defense.  May I forevermore see YOU within the soul of everyone I come in contact with from this point forward.  Lord, I thank you for Your sacrifice and for enduring what should have been my own punishment.  This I ask in Jesus name and for His glory.  Amen

Treading in grace,

Yvonne Jones

Danny Gokey  Hope In Front of Me