Last night I read a news item about an “academic exercise” at Florida State University where students were encouraged to write the name “Jesus” in large letters on a piece of paper and then throw it to the floor and stomp on it. One student refused and the incident has provoked outraged. Frankly, I read the news article and thought the so-called academic exercise to be just another stupid act of religious bigotry and went to bed.
In my devotional time this morning I read the collect from the Common Lectionary:
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Suddenly I realized that for centuries humans have been stomping on Jesus. In fact, it is Jesus’ act of suffering – of being beaten, spit upon, and crucified – that Christians remember during Holy Week. We remember the sufferings of Jesus because in his sufferings God shares in the suffering of humanity. It is through his sufferings that humans are reconciled to God (Romans 3:25; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). The sufferings of Jesus are an example for all believers who suffer persecution (1 Peter 2:21-25).
There will always be those who stomp on Jesus, those who with great malice seek to malign the Savior and Lord of humanity.
But then, I also remembered the words of Hebrews:
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame (Hebrews 6:4-6).
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29).
The warnings of this ancient sermon are not directed to those who have never heard and believed the Gospel. Nor, are these warnings addressed to those who with malice seek to malign the Lord Jesus. These warnings are addressed to those who have heard and believed, but then have turned their face from God. So today, instead of venting righteous indignation towards the persecutors of the faith, I will seek to prayerfully examine my own heart and mind and heed the words of Paul:
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5).
