Mocking What You Reject

Mocking Girl5One of the most frustrating things for me as a Christian is when an unbeliever mocks the Bible. When I first started walking close with the Lord, it seemed everywhere I turned I heard the Word of God being mocked. It took many years of Christian growth and maturity to overcome the urge to strike back at the mockers. Then of course my pastor, Dr. Dennis Brunet, succinctly summed it up for me last Sunday in his sermon:

    “Whenever you reject the Word of God, you must mock it.”

BINGO!

This makes perfect sense because mocking is a defense mechanism used to cover an obvious and blasphemous offense. If you can mock someone or something and get others to laugh and go along with you, then for a moment your guilty conscience is covered. Of course we know it is only temporary and we will all be held accountable for every idle word.

Being mocked is a form of ridicule and that terrifies most Christians. Why? It is because we don’t want to be publicly humiliated, even though our Lord Jesus Christ was publicly humiliated and mocked in ways that had all the angels in heaven ready to smite the earth. However, if that knowledge is not enough to overcome the fear of ridicule, then allow Jesus’ words from His Sermon on the Mount alleviate any concern of persecution:

    “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)

I realize that verse is most likely not going to make it as the power verse of the day on your local Christian radio station, nor are you going to be able to buy that as a paper weight or refrigerator magnet at your local Christian bookstore, but Jesus says we are blessed when we are persecuted for His sake.

What allows me to overcome my anger and frustration at God’s Word being mocked is understanding the spiritual state of the mocker. He or she is lost in their sins and the devil has blinded their eyes. Mocking is the natural response to rejecting the Bible:

    “Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor.” (Proverbs 14:9)

Whenever I hear God’s Word being mocked, I must remember that God is the Judge of the righteous and unrighteous and I do not need to defend myself when I’m being mocked. The Bible clearly states that liars and mockers will one day be silenced:

    “Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” (Psalm 31:18)

If I feel the urge to strike out at those mocking my Bible and me, then I have to remember the mocking my Savior endured in the hands of the some of the most vile humans ever:

    “When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’” (Matthew 27:29)

It was bad enough that Jesus was mocked by the Roman soldiers, but He was also mocked by those who should have realized that Christ was the Messiah promised in the Scriptures they knew so well. The church elite were not only mocking Jesus, they were also mocking their own beloved Scriptures:

    “Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.’” (Matthew 27:41-42)

They were mocking Christ because in their minds they believed Jesus could not save Himself, and if He did they still would not have believed. Nevertheless, Jesus taught us one of the hardest lessons for a Christian to learn. He taught us how to respond to such mocking and ridicule:

    “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ And they divided His garments and cast lots.” (Luke 23:24)

Amen.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2014 David Jeffers

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