I was reading an article last night on how the Early Church Fathers used satire on their opponents and referred to them as antichrists and other such titles. Such language is actually common in the NT. It made me think that they made these statements because their Christian hope was their greatest joy in life and these people opposed that.
I thought about that some more this morning out of the blue. Our preacher preached on John 19:28-42. His message was on what the death of Christ accomplished, but as I listened to the Scripture being read as the congregation including myself stood, I found an anger swelling inside of me over what was being said.
I don’t usually get emotional, but I remember hearing it today and thinking “No! This is pure evil!” Indeed, it is. We hear the story of the cross so often that I think we forget what really happened there. All within me said “He in no way deserved this!” I thought I had a proof of the resurrection then (Which I can argue for anyway) because surely, if anyone could conquer death, it had to be Jesus. Surely history would be all wrong if Jesus just remained dead.
It won’t convince a skeptic of course, but it should embolden us. When King Clovis, the first king of the Franks, was hearing about the crucifixion of Christ for the first time, he put his sword on his hilt saying that that wouldn’t have happened if he had been there. We can all be thankful that God allowed this to take place for our salvation, but if we had not known what was going on, how many of us would agree with Clovis? How many of us would get our weapons out and be ready to fight?
Such anger I think is good and necessary. We Christians don’t get angry enough. There are some things we should not get angry over, but there are some things we should. My sister was once a singer at a theme park. One day, a celebrity guest told her that she looked really good in her clothes, but she would look better if they were all off.
Imagine if it was your sister. How many of us would have immediately leaped forward ready to defend our sister’s honor? How many of us would do the same for our mother or for our loved ones? What docile mother would suddenly become a force to be reckoned with if her children were in danger?
My friends. We need to get angry. We need to look at the way the world is treating Christ. We’ve spent enough time being pretty and nice. Paul told us to put on armor and fight and we need to do that. This won’t be an easy fight. There will be injuries and our opponents don’t play nice.
It doesn’t matter. The cause is great and it’s worth fighting for.
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