Posted on 02/08/2006 10:02:27 AM PST by sheltonmac
What we saw this past week in the Islamic demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad was 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).
When it actually happened it was worse than expected. “They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. . . . And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit on him” (Matthew 27:28-30). His response to all this was patient endurance. This was the work he came to do. “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).
This was not true of Muhammad. And Muslims do not believe it is true of Jesus. Most Muslims have been taught that Jesus was not crucified. One Sunni Muslim writes, “Muslims believe that Allah saved the Messiah from the ignominy of crucifixion.”1 Another adds, “We honor [Jesus] more than you [Christians] do. . . . We refuse to believe that God would permit him to suffer death on the cross.”2 An essential Muslim impulse is to avoid the “ignominy” of the cross.
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. And 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 was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts 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.
How should his followers respond? On the one hand, we are grieved and angered. On the other hand, we identify with Christ, and embrace his suffering, and 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 twelve cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the uproar across the Muslim world was intense and sometimes violent. Flags were burned, embassies were torched, and at least one Christian church was stoned. 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 this religion 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).
2 Quoted from The Muslim World in J. Dudley Woodberry, editor, Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus Road (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1989), p. 164.
bttt
Blessings !
BTTT.
Our read-only FRiend biblewonk liked it, too.
Amen.
Muslim countries believe in something that is the polar opposite of Christianity. Example:
Muslim works to get to heaven vs Christian grace to get to heaven
Muslim conversion by man vs Christian conversion by spirit
Muslim "moon god" vs Christian "son god"
Muslim "Allah's will" vs Christian "free choice"
Mohammed on the other hand - himself was a cruel man who committed numerous atrocities and created a religion based not on love, but cruelty to non-believers. And, that god will attract all that worship at the altar of depravity, cruelty, torture, and death to others.
Leaving aside the religious differences, Islam kills every society it comes in contact with. It instills fatalism, a virtual caste system because of its hereditary religious structure, and induces total paralysis because of its hatred of music, art and creativity.
Personally, I liked this distinction attributed to John Ashcroft:
Christians beleive God sent his only son to die for you.
Allah demands Muslims send their only son to die for him.
The essence of Christianity if LOVE, not our ability to receive insults. It takes the love and of Christ living in our hearts to overcome the hatred, anger, insults, etc...Unconditional love that Jesus Christ had for us in that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans)
good post.
b'shem Y'shua
As I read more Scripture, it's clear that our very salvation depends on the insults suffered by Christ. He endured in our place. He paid the price for our sins. We are redeemed by His death and resurrection. God acquits us of our guilt because Christ pleads our case by taking onto Himself all the punishment due us as fallen sons of Adam.
This is totally alien to Islam which says salvation depends on men's own ferocious and corruptible retribution.
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." -- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Interesting point - one that I shall be pondering the rest of this week!
All well, good and TRUE. But that does not mean Christians have the right to foist suffering on others as what I have experienced on this forum. And those involved can stay the he** away from me.
Even as we look around us we see cartoons, TV shows , ads, and articles that mock Christ and His people. But we do not riot, kill and maim to prove the truth of the gospel. We allow the Holy Spirit to do his work and accept the degradation of our faith as a proof of its truth.
Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Until it suits their purposes.
A very beautiful reflection. Thank you.
The reason Christianity remains so strong, despite internecine difficulties, is because it is True. To be taught to 'bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies' is still as revolutionary as it was when Our Lord gave His command. It always was The Way, and will always be The way. Thanks for posting this.
Ping for later.
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