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Continuing our analysis of the penultimate chapter of Luke’s Gospel, this week, please read verses 33-38. If possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 23:35-37 (NIV)
‘The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.””’
There is a famous author and evolutionary biologist by the name of Richard Dawkins who has written several books including “The God Delusion”. He is very outspoken and declares his atheism with pride and arrogance. He once said that “somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist.”
A few years ago, during a rally in Washington DC in the USA, between 10 and 30 thousand atheists joined to celebrate secular values and to ‘motivate atheists to become more active’. Richard Dawkins was one of their guest speakers. During his speech, it was difficult for him to hide his obvious hatred of anyone who held any religious beliefs. With the vast crowd cheering every word, he called on them to ‘ridicule and show contempt’ to Christians. He went on to instruct them ‘to mock and ridicule the religious in public’. While I completely accept and appreciate that anyone who states that they have faith in God is open to debate and question, this kind of rude and ignorant behaviour, in my opinion, crosses the line of decency. He equates Christians with low intelligence and even stupidity.
Having faith is completely illogical and therefore to people like Dawkins, any Christian is not worth listening to because they have nothing to offer. The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ My faith in an awesome God who created the universe and holds it all together by the Word of His Power has been ‘proven’ time and time again as I see the power of His Word transform so many lives -including my own. There is evidence for all that God does if one is able to see it. The God of this world has blinded their eyes and so they cannot. While I may feel some hurt at the comments of Richard Dawkins, I am not able to hold any contempt or disdain of the man. He is blinded. He needs our prayers and not our anger.
We should not be surprised at this kind of sentiment toward Christians. In our verses today, we see Jesus Himself being ridiculed and mocked. The religious leaders ‘sneered’ at Him and they implied that Jesus was incapable of saving Himself. In a sense this is sort of true but it is also incredibly wrong. He could have been released from the cross in an instant but don’t forget that it wasn’t the nails or the Roman authorities that held Him to that cross. His love for the soldiers, the religious leaders, you, me and Richard Dawkins held him there.
Note also that they didn’t talk to Jesus directly. It was almost as if speaking to Him was beneath them in some way. The Creator of the world, the One who came to earth to show God’s love was lifted high on the cross so that we can respond to His love and enjoy that love forever. My prayer is that while we revel in that love, may we never fail to show it even to those who actively ridicule and abuse His followers.
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