Morning, April 14
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Psalms 22:7
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they
shake the head."
Psalm 22:7
Mockery was a great ingredient in our Lord's woe. Judas mocked him in
the garden; the chief priests and scribes laughed him to scorn; Herod
set him at nought; the servants and the soldiers jeered at him, and
brutally insulted him; Pilate and his guards ridiculed his royalty; and
on the tree all sorts of horrid jests and hideous taunts were hurled at
him. Ridicule is always hard to bear, but when we are in intense pain
it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to the quick. Imagine the
Saviour crucified, racked with anguish far beyond all mortal guess, and
then picture that motley multitude, all wagging their heads or
thrusting out the lip in bitterest contempt of one poor suffering
victim! Surely there must have been something more in the crucified One
than they could see, or else such a great and mingled crowd would not
unanimously have honoured him with such contempt. Was it not evil
confessing, in the very moment of its greatest apparent triumph, that
after all it could do no more than mock at that victorious goodness
which was then reigning on the cross? O Jesus, "despised and rejected
of men," how couldst thou die for men who treated thee so ill? Herein
is love amazing, love divine, yea, love beyond degree. We, too, have
despised thee in the days of our unregeneracy, and even since our new
birth we have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet thou
bleedest to heal our wounds, and diest to give us life. O that we could
set thee on a glorious high throne in all men's hearts! We would ring
out thy praises over land and sea till men should as universally adore
as once they did unanimously reject.
"Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou sovereign Good!
Thou art not loved, because not understood:
This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile
Ungrateful men, regardless of thy smile."