A Student Is Not Above His Teacher

What makes me expect better treatment than Jesus got? Where did I get that idea? Jesus was gossiped about, slandered, criticized, plotted against, lied about and finally crucified. And I think as his follower, yes, his student, that I should be treated better! So when someone gossips about me or spreads stories about me that put me in a very bad light, I want to cry “foul!” Where’s my defender? Where are my blessings for sacrificially following Jesus? My questions expose the fact that I really do expect better treatment than Jesus!

This week’s news about a preacher being arrested in London for publicly calling homosexuality a sin shrills an alarm to Christians in free nations. Our freedom of speech is being challenged. Up to this point Christians have been quite comfortably protected for speaking truth right along with anyone who wanted to shout lies! Yes, there has been a growing resistance to the Christian message, but jail time is taking resistance to another level. In fact, it’s taking it more to the level that Jesus taught the disciples to expect! It’s actually moving out-spoken Christians closer to what early believers experienced under irate religious rulers and under Roman rule. There was no law to protect them as they stood in the market place to preach. There was no one to stop the arrest. Just ask Peter who was thrown into prison for preaching or ask Paul who was stoned to death for proclaiming the name of Jesus.

So maybe, just maybe, Jesus was reading history ahead of time and was trying to prepare his disciples of this generation to expect radical resistance to truth and the Name of Christ. If our freedom to speak is no longer protected by law will we take up our cross daily with an expectation of suffering and continue to proclaim that Name above all Names and that Truth above all Truth?