Saturday, April 3, 2010

Laughed to Scorn

All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
Psalm 22:7

On the cross, Jesus quoted from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Some of those who heard His words must have thought that Jesus was falling into dark despair. God was not coming to rescue Him. A squadron of angels was not about to blast His oppressors into oblivion, nor transport Him to glory. Jesus’ end was agonizingly human. He died in excruciating pain, as victims of man’s inhumanity have often died, throughout the centuries. Doubtless some were happy to see Jesus in this state – pathetic, worthy only of our pity.

Others, seeing Jesus, felt no pity, only scorn. Verse seven of Psalm 22 means, literally, “they shoot out the lip,” that is, they sneer at the passing of the Holy One. Certainly, there were those who were relieved to see Him die. Jesus had posed a threat to the religious establishment. With His death, things could get back to normal. Jesus had believed Himself to be someone special, but His death proved otherwise, or so they thought.

In the cool darkness of the tomb Jesus slept the sleep of death. But it was not a sleep from which He would never awake. While the devil and his cohorts laughed at Christ’s passing, the seed of life was getting ready to burst forth. Deep, within the earth, new life was rising. It was to be the rebirth of hope.

There are those who still heap ridicule upon Christ today. They say that His acquiescence to the will of God makes Him less than a man. They rail against “the pale Galilean” as the one who drains the color out of life. They mock Him as a dreamer who accomplished nothing. In their eyes, Jesus is still dead. His bones lie hidden in a Palestinian ossuary, which is exactly where His ideas should be left – dead and buried, consigned to the scrapheap of history. The laughter of these God-haters still rolls around the world, and the joke is always at the expense of the Man of Sorrows.

But, He who laughs last laughs loudest. Death crows its victory; but life lies in waiting, ready for the coming of the dawn.

Silent God,
The foolish ignore You.
The malicious abuse You.
Have I been among their number?
Have I been too busy to watch and pray?
Have I taken a seat among the mockers?
Forgive me, Lord.
I, too, will be silent.
And I will wait.
Amen.