Enduring Opposition Beyond Our Comprehension

Imagine being hired for a job, but even before you can report to work, people who didn’t favor your hiring already begin condemning you: your qualifications, character, capabilities, values, even your physical appearance and traits.

Nothing changes after arriving on the job. You dive into your responsibilities, learning as you go and striving to be as diligent as you can, but the critics are unrelenting. They quote what you say out of context, or misquote you to suit their nefarious purposes. All your achievements and good deeds are ignored or flipped around into fodder for more criticism.

In both corporate and public meetings, you’re bombarded with fierce attacks and strong opposition, and no matter how you respond, you’re criticized. Talk about a no-win situation! Would you sign up for a situation like that?

We can see examples of this in everyday life, but the greatest example of all is found in the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Jesus Christ was rejected by people in his hometown. His miracles delighted some, but filled others with fear. He set strict guidelines for following Him, and many who had thronged to Him then rejected Him.“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66).

It’s impossible for our finite human minds to fully grasp the magnitude of what Jesus did for us. In 1 Corinthians 5:21, the apostle Paul wrote of Jesus Christ, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” As a friend of mine used to say, in the vernacular of the day, “Jesus took the rap for us.” Who does this? 

Writing many centuries earlier, Isaiah prophetically expanded on that, giving us a powerful, penetrating description of the opposition and abuse the promised Messiah would face: 

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 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” (Isaiah 53:2-5).

Throughout the gospels we read how the religious leaders – the Pharisees, the Sadducees and other Jewish officials – mounted their false accusations against Jesus, despite His extreme humility, profound teaching and inexplicable miracles. They questioned His methods, motivations and message. He was hauled before a “court” in which the verdict had been predetermined, leading to humiliating accusations, excruciating torture, and ultimately, public execution on a crude Roman cross.

How could Jesus endure this? Why would He endure it? We find the answer in Hebrews 2:17-18:

“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus willingly endured abuse that was utterly and totally undeserved; inconceivable opposition and pain. He was doing so willingly, fully prepared to give His life for you, for me, and any who would accept His perfect and unconditional gift. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). 

And yet…many still reject Him.

Celebrating an Incomparable Combination

This painting by artist Gaye Frances Willard,
“Every Knee Shall Bow,” captures the message
of Jesus, the Christmas story and the cross.

Some things just seem to go together: peanut butter and jelly; salt and pepper; Mickey and Minnie Mouse; sunshine and flowers; eggs and bacon (or ham, if you prefer); Lewis and Clark; Laurel and Hardy (I know, I’m dating myself).  However, there’s one important combination that doesn’t receive nearly as much notice, even though it should: Christmas and Easter.

Christmas, with Santa Claus, seems to overshadow Easter and its bunny. And a festive tree surrounded by brightly wrapped gifts has lots more impact than colored Easter eggs and chocolate rabbits. But in reality, without Easter there would be no Christmas.

Except for those offended by just about everything these days, the annual Nativity scenes we can see displayed in homes, churches, and even some public areas have a warming effect on our souls. Sweet little baby Jesus. Even filmdom’s “Ricky Bobby” had a soft spot for Him. But why the fuss over a baby born in a stark, unsterile setting in an obscure village in the Middle East? Why celebrate that now?

It's not a spoiler alert to observe that infant grew to become a man with an unsurpassed worldwide impact upon countless millions around the world, even though His radius of earthly travel was probably well within 100 miles. How do you accomplish that? 

It’s because unlike any other religious leader in history, Jesus Christ not only went about teaching and serving as an example, but also claimed to be God in the flesh, willingly suffered cruel execution on a cross and then, as He promised, rose from the dead and empowered a rag-tag but zealous group of followers to continue the work.

He was the Messiah whose birthplace was prophesied in Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

This same Messiah was spoken of in many other Old Testament passages, including Isaiah 53:5, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

After He had fulfilled these and hundreds of other prophecies, Jesus was convicted at a mock trial, and with the approval of the Jewish leaders hung on a wooden cross, crucifixion being a unique form of capital punishment invented by the Romans. But that stopped neither Him nor His soul-saving, life-transforming ministry.

When devoted women arrived to anoint Jesus’ body on the third day following His death, they were greeted by an angel who declared, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here” (Mark 16:6). Then He appeared to and met with His closest disciples and was seen by hundreds of other eyewitnesses.

Before ascending to heaven, as the Scriptures report, Jesus gave some final instructions:“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). He was leaving, but also sending His Spirit in His place to live in them and work through them.

So as we hit our annual pause button to celebrate Christmas and the birth of the Christ Child, let’s not forget the cross, without which there would be no need to commemorate and rejoice in the birth.