Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Jesus of Nazareth was the best man who ever walked this planet. But did He ever have enemies! It was a puzzle to Him when He was a Boy, why people hated Him so much. He meant no one any harm, yet He seemed to be a lightning rod that attracted people's animosity, and He couldn't help it.
Here is a precious personal glimpse into the heart of Jesus--He says, "Those who hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of My head" (Psalm 69:4). Only one person in all human history could have said that; and it was literally true. Every human being (us included!) has come into the world with the natural equipment of ingrained enmity against Jesus: "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). That's our natural state if we never hear the gospel. Every human being rates one of those hairs on Jesus' head!
As a Boy, He learned that it's no fun when people don't like you, and there seems to be nothing you can do about it. They were His "enemies wrongfully," He says. He had to act continually as though He had stolen things (which He had not done!) and be forced to pay back what He had never stolen! "Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it," He says (Psalm 69:4).
He loved family ties as much as any of us (it's not nice to be alone in an unfriendly world); but He "became a stranger to [His] brothers and an alien to [His] mother's children" (vs. 8; yes, Mary had more children). The other kids weren't picking on Him because He was weak or sickly, but for the opposite reason: He was the only "healthy" One in the family, and they couldn't stand His constant example of being unselfish.
Sometimes He couldn't help but cry. Even as a Boy He carried a burden they had no idea about, but "when [He] wept, ... that became [His] reproach" (vs. 10). "When I poured Myself out in prayer and fasting, all it got Me was more contempt" (Peterson, The Message).
The hatred young Jesus was up against stuck to Him all His life until His same enemies tortured Him in His death. And here's where I don't know how to write it: He loved them and prayed for His enemies at His painful end.
"Lord, we don't know how to follow Your Example! It's not in us to love enemies. Hell is where everybody hates everybody else; please save us from it!"
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 4, 2004.
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