All true Christians trust that Jesus is pure and holy. But not everyone agrees. And it was the same at Calvary, 2,000 years ago. Those who passed by that day, hurled their insults at Jesus, shaking their heads and mocking Him:
They said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. So he’s the king of Israel? If he comes down from the cross, then we’ll believe in him. He trusted God. Let God rescue Him now–if he wants him! After all, he said, “I am the Son of God.” [Matthew 27:42-43]
Pure insult: that’s what it was–outright ridicule of God’s anointed and contempt for the long-promised Messiah.
But, of course, it won’t always be that way. One day, every eye will see Jesus as He is, when He comes in glory. Then every knee will bend, for unbelievers will also admit before the fearsome judgment throne that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9-10).
However, the true identity of Jesus remains hidden until that Day. Only faith can see in this Man of Sorrows the true Son of God, Light from Light and true God from true God. We find a dramatic contrast between who Jesus is and what He looked like during His time here on earth.
That’s why Jesus suffered scorn and insult. On Palm Sunday, throngs of people welcomed Jesus into the royal city of Jerusalem with triumphant cries, hailing Him as their King. They cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Strangely enough, almost five days later, the Jewish leadership could gather another crowd before Pilate, who would jeer, mock, and ridicule Jesus.
“So he’s the king of Israel? If he comes down from the cross, then we’ll believe in him,” the crowds cried. But Jesus didn’t, did He. Jesus didn’t come down from the cross because He chose not to do that. He pressed on to carry out God’s saving rescue for a fallen world. Not even hell itself would deter Jesus from His chosen mission to offer Himself as the innocent sacrifice for all our sin. He is the Lamb of God–and today we remember that He is our Lamb who endured the ridicule of His creatures to win the final victory.
You and I don’t like to be ridiculed, do we? We don’t like conflict and scorn, and so we’ve adapted by laying low. We often buckle under when our reputation is at stake. We don’t want to lose face, and we would do almost anything to protect ourselves.
It’s no wonder, then, that we are such weak-kneed Christians. We are reluctant to let our lights shine in the darkness of an unbelieving world because we fear the scorn of skeptics. It’s unpopular to take a stand on moral issues in a culture that tolerates almost anything except Christianity. In such a moral climate, it’s unpopular to stand for true decency and order, moral purity, marital faithfulness, integrity, and truth. When you take such a stand, others may consider you as odd; you just don’t fit in, and quickly you find yourself on the outside looking in.
And what happens then? After the cutting words of others score you to the bone, you shut up. You look the other way when people live as if there were no God. You remain silent when others defile and abuse God’s holy name, when others scorn and ridicule His Church. You just don’t want to pay the price.
That’s how we often act. We don’t like abuse, so we silence our tongues instead of confessing what is right. We wink at sin and blend in with the crowd. Sometimes, we even set aside our hesitation and join in–all because we cannot stand the scorn!
Thank God it wasn’t so on that hill of death. Our Savior bore the insults and mockery of His enemies that day just as bravely as He endured His bodily torture. But all that was child’s play compared with the Father’s wrath that Jesus endured because of our sins. God unleashed His fury against a scornful world and all its sin on His one-and-only Son, because Christ carried all our sins on His sinless back that day He died. If just one sin can send someone to hell and bring down God’s wrath and anger, think of what Jesus endured as He bore the sins of all humanity on the cross.
Yet, that’s the measure of God’s love. He would go that far, not sparing His own Son but handing Him over to death for us all, for you and me, no matter who we are or what we’ve done (Romans 8:32). Christ’s death earns us the forgiveness for our sins. That even includes the sins we want to hide from God, including those times we have caved in and weren’t willing to pay the price of ridicule or feel the bite of scorn.
As it was with David, so it was with Jesus. “I am a worm and less than a man,” wrote King David, “insulted by some and despised by others” (Psalm 22:6). That’s the way it went for David for much of his life. His enemies hunted him. His own people rejected him because he didn’t have the look of a king. They took David for a mouse of a man, a herder of sheep, some backwater boy–not the Lord’s anointed, the rightful king of Israel. Many times, others attacked David and threatened his life. It’s no wonder, then, that in Psalm 22, David called out to the Lord in anguish: “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me? Why are You so far from saving me?” (Psalm 22:1).
But that was only dress rehearsal for what happened centuries later, on a hill called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. There, the Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel died in open shame and degradation, nailed on a cross. As most of Jesus’ friends abandoned Him and His enemies insulted Him, Jesus prayed those words of David: “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?” (Matthew 27:46). In His redeeming love, Jesus had stooped so low that God, His loving Father, abandoned Him and turned His back on Him in righteous fury against our sin.
Yet, that was also the measure of His love for people like you and me. So deep was His sorrow, so sharp His pain, so bitter His despair that Jesus saw Himself as less than human: “I am a worm and less than a man, insulted by some and despised by others” (Psalm 22:6).
In those words, we catch the sarcasm in the arrogant eyes of the Temple authorities and glimpse the triumphant contempt of the Pharisees. We can almost see their poisoned, mocking lips and their proud, wagging heads: “He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue Him. Let the Lord rescue him since he is pleased with him” (Psalm 22:8). Oh, they thought they had the last word that day at Calvary, but they did not.
For on the third day after His death, God the Father, through His Holy Spirit, raised Jesus from the dead, triumphant and victorious over sin and hell. God the Father did delight in Jesus! He did accept His death as full payment for the sins of all mankind. Jesus was not only delivered over to death for our sins but was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25).
The mocking and jeering enemies of Jesus didn’t see the whole picture. There was more to Jesus’ humiliating death than the human eye could see. He was the Son of God, although He looked more like a worm than a man. Jesus was the ruler over everything for His Church, although He looked more like a fool than a king.
That’s the way it continues to this day. Those who know Jesus by faith, confess Him to be both Lord and God. But those who reject Jesus go on mocking Him, for they don’t see Him as He is. He is God wrapped in human flesh–but only the eyes of faith can see that!
You can call Jesus “Teacher,” and most will be okay with that. But if you call Him “God,” many will jeer and mock you because the world despises what the Creator treasures. That’s the way it is in this fallen world. And it will remain so until Jesus comes again in glory to bring down the curtain on this created world and usher in the kingdom yet to come.
And so we remain faithful to Jesus, even though others may mock and ridicule Him. After all, He is both God and Lord and remains our Savior and King. Although He has entered heaven’s glory, He has not abandoned us to our sins. Jesus told His Apostles, the first pastors in the Church: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And He is: in the Word and Sacrament that Jesus established for His Church until He returns on the Last Day.
Christ’s gifts are real, wrapped within the ways He has chosen to save and keep us in the faith. The Gospel that is preached to us is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. When the called servants of Christ say, “I forgive you your sins,” they are forgiven (John 20:23). Such forgiveness, then, is just as valid and certain in heaven as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself (Small Catechism).
When we are washed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that water is not just water. It’s water connected to God’s command and promise. Because of the Word of God connected to that water, baptism becomes a gracious washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). When we eat the bread of the holy Supper and drink the cup of the Lord in His sacred Meal, we show forth the Lord’s death until He comes. It may look like mere bread and wine, but the bread that we break is the body of Christ, and the cup that we bless is His holy, precious blood.
All this is for the forgiveness of our sins. Those are the ways that Jesus set up to release us from our guilt and shame, to give us what He achieved, once for all, on the cross. Over and over, we receive those gifts in this sacred space, by the Word that is preached into our ears and the Sacraments administered to us.
So if the world mocks and jeers us, know that they do not have the last word. For we know the ending chapter of this world’s sad story. We know in whom we trust, and are convinced that He can guard what has been entrusted to us until that Day, when He comes in glory (2 Timothy 1:12). Amen.
