The Pain of Mocking

Good Friday morning! Next time we do this on a Friday, it will be Good Friday. Today the question is a humbling one for me, because I have done this in my past. The question is: Have you ever mocked? Since most of us began life as babies and grew up into toddlers and kids, chances are good that we have mocked or been mocked. The usual first step is to point out a difference in a little toddler body. Second, the kids in school make a different word of another kid's name. As a born Sealey, I still remember a kid pronouncing it 'silly' ad infinatum until the mock was firmly entrenched in my memory all these years. Kids are creative, so every name given to children - first, middle or last - has been mocked in several ways, I'm sure. Even pronounced correctly, we have the ability to put an inflection on a name that mocks. Is it any wonder then that God made His name holy and put a law on that to keep it that way?

You and I can easily recall the kid we called by some derogatory name, or we can recall the name given to us that we didn't like. Cain and Abel probably came up with mocking nicknames for each other way back in the first days. We tend to grow out of it because of the pain of mocking. The thirty or forty-something year old man still using all the old nicknames people didn't like at the class reunion comes across as more than a little pathetic. We don't like to see an adult person mired in childishness. Partly because such a person tempts us to mocking way too much! Jesus gave us a positive, pro-active method for this sort of temptation. Do unto others as you would have them do for you.

Mocking is painful when received. As we grow to be more like our Lord, it becomes painful when given as well. I hesitate to think of the mocking our Lord endured on the way to Calvary. Mocking comes from a hating heart, and our Lord endured more than we can ever know. Praise God that none of that caused Him to hate in return. When we give mocking, He gives mercy and forgiveness with healing. When we must receive or endure mocking, our Lord gives us strength and faithfulness with His comfort.

Rejoice in the Friday!
Bucky