SQJ Taipei

Before anyone gets upset about the title of this post… please read the following three points.

• I’m not turning to the dark side. Actually it troubles me to write that title.
• Here’s the dictionary definition.
• This word is in the Bible. Shocked? Yeah… that’s partly why I put it in the title I guess.

Here’s John 8:41 from The Message:

They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”

I. kid. you. not.

Jesus was talking to some people about being children of Abraham and they brought up his family. And I’ll bet this wasn’t the first time or last time people dragged this out to flaunt it in Jesus’ face. You do know why they’d say it right? Because it appeared to be true. Read this from Matthew 1:18:

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.)

Joseph had the benefit of a visit from an angel to help him understand the situation… but to everyone else… how could Jesus be anything but an illegitimate child?

I understand that the cross was still to come and that the burden of the sins of the world would make these petty comments about Jesus’ family almost irrelevant. But what my point is here… is that Jesus understands us. When people hurt us… he felt it… not just in some mystical and spiritual and God-like way on the cross. But in regular… everyday… human-like life. Have you been criticized? Jesus was… in real life. Have you even been mocked? Jesus was… in real life. Everyone knew him… they knew his mom… they knew his dad… they knew his story… and they teased him… mocked him… laughed at him… all in real life.

Maybe on this Christmas, we’ll gain this fresh perspective of Jesus’ love for us. I think he knew about the cross from the beginning……. because it was his mission… the reason he came to earth. But what about the teasing? What about the mocking? Did he know how hurtful people would be? Yeah… probably so… but he came anyway… for you and for me and for the world.

Isaiah 53:3-7

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He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.