“If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him who sent me.” (John 15:18-20)
This Easter, it seems many are spinning further away from Christ; consternation and bickering everywhere - with Christians in the middle of it all. So much discussion about rights: gay rights, religious rights, marriage equality; voices turning into screams - demanding to be heard. The broken: all they can do is react. Everything emerges from that wounded and sick side of themselves; I know it well; I carried around a crippled child inside me for years: that boy who got teased, pushed down, and called every name. For years, he ruled me; made me suspicious; desperate; restlessly craving attention. Finally, his demands become too much - and Jesus Christ took him away. But, for many, it’s become a way of life - something inescapable within the current climate of brokenness. In the chaos, Christians should stay above the fray; they should know better; instead, they jump in; taking on the guise of pop-victimization. In this country, things are too cozy - we have forgotten the martyrs: they seem like dead ghosts of ancient Rome; in other parts of the world, the Middle East for instance, innocent Christian blood is still wet. I think, we have forgotten what it is to suffer. Jesus never said following Him would be easy. Now, we must embrace a new martyrdom - one of the mind. Today, we won’t be savagely murdered for our beliefs, at least in America and much of the West, but we will be hated. Accept it. Remember, they hated Him before. But He took it - and He died for those who cursed Him and for those who drove the nails through His hands. He loved them - even in their vicious bewilderment; forgiving them from the Cross; we must do the same - the one’s who despise us: “they know not what they do.”