Painful to Read

Today's reading: Matthew 27:15-31

'...and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.' - Matthew 27:29-30

Every day when I go through the One Year reading plan, I try to read through the New Testament portion two or three times. Doing this helps me get a good grasp on the passage, and it allows me to spend a comparable amount of time between the Old and New Testament readings.

But today? Today was a different story. I listened to it once and then really hesitated to go through it a second or third time. I was angry. I was feeling upset. I was hearing the crowd say, "Let him be crucified!" Chills.

Jesus' journey to the cross both enrages me and encourages me. It makes me fire mad because Jesus was unjustly tortured and mocked. It inspires me because I know he did it out of love and urgency to rescue all humanity from themselves.

I think I was also emotional as I read because I HATE being mocked. I believe the reason I despise it so much is that it is an act of devaluation. For someone to be treated as less than human is the ultimate form of injustice. And when we are talking about the King of Kings being mocked, we know it is wrong, but we know we needed it to make us right.

We have so much to be thankful for today!