Mockery of Goodness

All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. Psalm 22:7

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Mockery was one of the primary ingredients in our Lord's suffering. Judas mocked Him in Gethsemane, the chief priests and scribes laughed at Him with contempt, Herod treated Him as worthless and despicable, the servants and soldiers derisively jeered Him and brutally insulted Him, Pilate and his guards ridiculed His royalty, and finally, on the tree all sorts of horrid indignities and hideous taunts were hurled at Him.

Ridicule is always hard to bear, but when we are in intense pain it is so heartless and cruel it cuts to our very soul. As you consider this, consider our Savior, tormented with severe anguish and pain far beyond human ability to even imagine or comprehend. Then picture that diverse multitude surrounding their poor suffering victim, each "shaking their heads" or shouting out the cruelest words of contempt!

There was so much more in the crucified One than this mingled mob could see. How else could have such a large and varied crowd so unanimously "honor" Him with such contempt! Surely it was evil itself--in the very moment of its greatest apparent triumph--confessing that, after all was said and done, it could do nothing more than mock the victorious Goodness, which was reigning on the cross.

O dear Jesus--"despised and rejected by men" (Isa. 53:3)--how could You have died for people who treated You so cruelly? "This is love" (1 John 4:10)--divine love--love beyond measure. Yet we too once despised You in the days before You regenerated us. And even since our new birth we have often enthroned the world higher in our hearts than You. Even so, You bled to heal our wounds and died to give us life. Oh, that we could place You on a high and glorious throne in the hearts of everyone! We long to proclaim Your praises over land and sea till people everywhere come to universally adore You as much as they once unanimously rejected You.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Show me a greater love than this!
"God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:8-10). "Because of his great love for us, God ... made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions" (Eph. 2:4-5).

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).