I am not pointing fingers.
I am not getting political. Do not read anything into the message.
I think it is important to point out that “mockery and derision” are frequently the tactic of the “rich and the powerful” to besmirch someone’s character.
It is historic.
It has happened for centuries.
It goes way back in time… a lot further than most of us realize.
We live (sometimes) in (what can be) a very “black and white-stone-cold-world.”
“Us” against “them”…is something that is very real. We too eagerly take sides. We play the “blame” game.
It usually is “leadership based.” Those “who feel threatened” point things out to the others and they sometimes willingly follow suit…
Why trust the word of others?
Think for yourselves.
Do not be like sheep who follow blindly.
Perhaps, the real onus is on us.
Especially when we participate in the “self same kind of rhetoric…” And do so unashamedly.
And then, someone gives “US” a pass…
Allow me to explain, using the life of Jesus. He was no doubt “an irritant.” He was “outspoken,” at times, or he definitely could be.
Some people would have actually seen him as being “toxic.” He poisoned the people and their way of thinking…
He constantly “defended” the poor and the marginalized. He had vast concern for women and children. Like every Hebrew man of his day and his time, he realized that there was “an obligation” to the widow, the orphan and the resident alien.
He showed “compassion” toward the outcast and the ritually unclean. He was known for associating and indeed eating with – sinners and other notorious individuals…including Gentiles!
Hated and despised tax collectors, collaborators with Rome, were his friends. Women of questionable behavior – he befriended. His rhetoric was constant…and consistent.
There was no doubt about it – to the powers that be – he was more than a “mild annoyance…”
He was a “distraction” to the things that were really important…some said he was a huge “source of aggravation” for the Jerusalem elites.
“Pesky,” “bothersome” a “menace” and a “thorn in the flesh” for those of power and means…
Why should “this Galilean” be taking up THEIR time and wasting THEIR precious resources? There are many more pressing matters to be dealt other…than “this Galilean.”
It has been said that the “irritant” is brought to heel through “derision” and “character assassination.”
Tear him down! And so, the attempt was made!
First you ignore THEM, then, YOU ridicule THEM, then, you take THEM on…
The attempt was made to get the people to “despise” Jesus of Nazareth. The problem was that “the crowds” seemingly adored Jesus. He was humble, he was kind, he took time with them and he listened. Jesus “cared” when no one else seemed to…
According to the Gospel of Luke the crowds “do not join in” the mockery of Jesus…at least, not yet…
Jesus was in solidarity with “the common people.”
It was “the rulers” who derided him. It was the “elites.” It was the “Pharisees and the scribes.” It was the “priests and the Sadducees.” It was “the high Muckety-Mucks.”
Pontius Pilate did not fall for it. He would not play their game…that is, until he was forced to…under pressure.
It was the rulers who said, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God.”
And the scriptures are clear, the soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him cheap wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
And one of the criminals was reviling him: “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
The mockers include, in this order…the Judean leadership, the Roman soldiers and the one criminal.
The titles for Jesus in this section are “the Christ of God,” “His chosen one,” the King of the Jews (stated twice) and simply “the Christ.”
It is the leaders who say, “He can’t even save himself, let alone anybody else.”
There are no pecking orders, no one is better, no one is worse, stop the judgmentalism, stop the blaming, stop the finger pointing…cast no stones…oh you, who live in glass houses…
Amen.