The Irony
By: Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze´
Not everyone who sits next to you in church is a child of God. Often it’s those whom we suspect have the greatest desire for God that are the most opposed.
Time after time, and very surprisingly, the very people we might guess would receive Jesus with joy actually rejected Him. Herod the Great was one of the His first enemies. The man who built the beautiful temple in Jerusalem sent out the decree that every boy, two years old and younger, to be killed. He heard that a new king had been born and he was not about to be usurped by a baby.
Later on, Jesus was rejected by his hometown and even by members of His own family. Even the Pharisees and their cohorts handed him over to Pilate to be tortured and put to death. The high priest asked Jesus in Mark 14 if he was the Christ. When Jesus answered in the affirmative, the priest tore his own clothing. Every Jewish person knew that a messiah would come. They, who knew the scriptures better than anybody, didn’t recognize Him for who He was.
Some of the people who have been most opposed to Jesus came out of Christian homes. The seeds of faith never implanted themselves in their hearts. The opposite is true too. The people who rail the loudest against Christianity sometimes become believers. Faith comes by hearing. We never know where, and how, those seeds of faith will land. What we do know is that since faith comes by hearing, we need to be speaking. We need to be living. How will people know about Jesus if we don’t tell them?
For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org
Originally published Tuesday, 08 November 2016.
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