The responses to my discussion question for my ISS (Social Studies) course completely blindsided me today. Initially, I got really defensive and irritated. No one there even knows my views on faith yet — Can’t I just submit a question about society and nature without suddenly getting barraged by comments about the pointlessness of religion and the narrow-mindedness of Christianity?
Then, this funny thing happened. See, when you start reading the Bible, you start thinking the Bible.
I thought about how lonely, from a human perspective, Jesus’ life must’ve been. Think about it — people either hated him, were talking about him behind his back, loved him but couldn’t do anything in return, or loved him but then screwed up when it was crunch time. The emotions amassing within him weren’t revenge and disgust, though. He didn’t tell God to forget humanity, that we weren’t worth it. He wasn’t seething with anger or saying “Screw you!” when they hoisted him up on the cross. I sure would have been.
Shh, Listen. Let God tell you straight from his Word.
“Jesus was despised and rejected–a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”
“But when [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
And with the skin of his back hanging off, open gouges haloing his head, and nails the size of butterknives wedged between the bones and muscles of his wrists and feet…
“Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.””
(Matthew 9:36, Isaiah 53:3, Luke 23:34)