Being
mocked
It’s the essence
of Christ’s work, not Muhammad’s | John Piper
We saw last week in the Islamic
demonstrations over Danish cartoons of Muhammad another vivid depiction
of the difference between Muhammad and Christ, and what it means to follow
each. Not all Muslims approve the violence. But a deep lesson remains:
The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ
is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions
to mockery.
If Christ had not been insulted,
there would be no salvation. This was His saving work: to be insulted
and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God. Already in the Psalms
the path of mockery was promised: "All who see me mock me; they make
mouths at me; they wag their heads" (Psalm 22:7). "He was despised
and rejected by men . . . as one from whom men hide their faces . . .
and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah 53:3).
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That's the most basic difference
between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ.
For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission.
For a true follower of Christ, enduring suffering patiently for the glory
of Christ is the essence of obedience. "Blessed are you when others
revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely
on my account" (Matthew 5:11). During his life on earth Jesus was
called a bastard (John 8:41), a drunkard (Matthew 11:19), a blasphemer
(Matthew 26:65), a devil (Matthew 10:25); and he promised his followers
the same: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more will they malign those of his household" (Matthew 10:25). The caricature and mockery
of Christ has continued to this day. Martin Scorsese portrayed Jesus in
The Last Temptation of Christ as wracked with doubt and beset with sexual
lust. Andres Serrano used National Endowment for the Arts funding to portray
Jesus on a cross sunk in a bottle of urine. The Da Vinci Code portrays
Jesus as a mere mortal who married and fathered children.
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How should his followers respond?
On the one hand, we are grieved and angered. On the other hand, we identify
with Christ, embrace his suffering, rejoice in our afflictions, and say
with the apostle Paul that vengeance belongs to the Lord, let us love
our enemies and win them with the gospel. If Christ did his work by being
insulted, we must do ours likewise.
When Muhammad was portrayed
in 12 cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the uproar among
Muslims was intense and sometimes violent: They burned flags, torched
embassies, and stoned at least one Christian church. The cartoonists went
into hiding in fear for their lives, like Salman Rushdie before them.
What does this mean?
It means that a religion with
no insulted Savior will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means
that Islam is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor
of one who did not die and rise again to make that possible. It means
that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with
man. And it means that his followers must be willing to "share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10).
Copyright © 2006 WORLD Magazine
February 18, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 7
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