The
soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the
governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole company of
soldiers. They dressed him up in a
purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him. They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!” Again and again, they struck his head with a
stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him. When they finished mocking him, they stripped
him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him
out to crucify him.
We live in a culture that is de-sensitized
to violence. The large majority of the
top TV shows and movies have an abundance of it. We’ve even learned to tolerate actual violence. Lawmakers, in the shadow of more than one
mass shooting a day in this country, do nothing to address the problem. Lest you think I am scapegoating them for the
rest of us, I remind you and myself that we keep electing the lawmakers that have
done nothing to address the problem and we keep watching those violent shows
and movies that get top ratings.
I do notice people who are different
than this. They tend to be people for
whom violence is personal experience.
The most passionate activists for change are often people who have lost
loved ones to violence or who have experienced it personally. When it’s a problem that has affected other
people whom we don’t know or have a relationship, we can distance ourselves and
disconnect to protect ourselves from it.
People who know violence up close do not have that luxury.
In today’s passage, God Himself
encounters the violence and cruelty of which of human beings are capable. Jesus is whipped on orders from a Roman Governor
that stated publicly that Jesus had done nothing wrong; Pilate gives the order
to satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd. Jesus
is then mocked, tortured, and spit upon by a whole company Roman soldiers. They were careful enough not to kill Him
though. For the real show of violence
was still to come. We’ll talk about that
more next time.
My point today is when we hear
things like “turn the other cheek,” love your enemies,” and “do not take vengeance”
coming from the lips of Jesus, we can know that He doesn’t say such things from
a position of someone for whom violence is very personal thing. When families are torn apart by the brutality
“out there,” God knows the terrible idiosyncrasies of that experience. When a spouse is verbally and/or physically
abused, Jesus knows that terror. When a missile
explodes through an apartment complex full of innocent civilians in a country
racked by war, God knows the incredible weight of that loss.
Despite our culture, violence should
be personal for every follower of Jesus because it is personal for Jesus
Himself. So don’t read the above passage
as would a story in a book or watch “The Passion of the Christ” as you would watch
the latest episode of “Yellowstone.”
Your brother Jesus is the one getting beat up here. The God who is our Father is losing His son
here. When they mock, tease, and spit on Jesus, it should be as though they
were doing it to us. This is as personal
as it gets.
Question: How has the suffering of real people in the
world and of Jesus touched your life?
Prayer: God, we confess that we have a complicated
relationship with violence. We have
found ways to de-sensitize ourselves to it so it doesn’t overwhelm us. But it has also distanced us from the violence
You Yourself experienced. Break our
hearts for the things that break Yours.
Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for the victims of specific occurrences of
violence of which you are aware. Pray
for those people as you would a brother, sister, parent, or child in the same
situation.
Song: Towards the end of this song, hear these
lyrics that are a prayer:
Heal
my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show
me how to love like you have loved me.
Break
my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause
As
I walk from Earth into eternity.
Hosana – Hillsong:
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