“Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him.” – Matthew 26:67
How do you feel about this? How would you respond if you were in the sandals of Jesus? Jesus took it and turned the other cheek to be hit again. He Who holds the universe together took it. He Who could have summoned armies of angels to His defense took it. The Son of God accepted disrespect, humiliation, and injustice with silent strength. Why?
To make peace. To reconcile. To forgive. To rescue. To heal. To restore. Who? Us!
Jesus accepted humiliation, torture, and death to make peace between sinful mankind and our Holy Creator. Jesus experienced utter disrespect to reconcile us to God and restore us to loving relationship. Jesus was abused so that He could redeem us from slavery to the very sins being committed in that moment and to rescue us from death. Jesus took it so He could give us new life in Him and eternal life in the presence of God the Father. Jesus took it to unite us with Him through His own death and resurrection. Jesus took it so that our shame and guilt could be washed away forever. Jesus took it so that all who believe in Him can experience these wondrous blessings and benefits by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
Jesus also took it to teach us that we too can (and must) take it in Him. If you’re in Christ, then you have His strength to take risks, be humiliated, and suffer for the sake of making peace and reconciling with hostile parties. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to follow Jesus – even into this. We don’t get to indulge dreams of revenge or demands for respect. Our Savior set those things down and turned the other cheek so that we could follow Him in reconciling and rescuing a lost, broken, ugly, hurting, angry world. There’s plenty of work to do once we embrace the strength He’s given us to take it. Are you ready to do the hard work of saving the world?