"They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him."
- Mark 14:64b–65 (NIV11)
Do you remember this biblical scene where Jesus is blindfolded, spit on, beaten, blooded, mocked and taunted by the Roman soldiers who cried out "Prophesy!" O, wait a second, my bad. That wasn't the Romans; that was Jesus' own people, the religious leaders and temple guard, following Jesus' conviction for blasphemy by the Jewish Council. All this happened on the Thursday, following the Last Supper. Friday would be the Roman guards' opportunity to flog and beat and crown Jesus with thorns before his crucifixion. But on the Thursday, it was Jesus' own people who beat him and spit upon him; those whose allegiance was to the God of Abraham, Moses and Jacob; those who claimed to speak on the authority of both Holy Scripture and the Heavenly Father.
O what evil we, the righteous, are capable of inflicting upon others in the name of God, once we convince ourselves that they are "evil". The Christian philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal wrote in his Les pensées de Blaise Pascal (1669) that "Men never commit evil so fully and so gaily as when they do so for conscience sake." ("Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement, que quand on le fait par un faux principe de conscience")
O what evil we, the righteous, are capable of inflicting upon others in the name of God, once we convince ourselves that they are "evil". The Christian philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal wrote in his Les pensées de Blaise Pascal (1669) that "Men never commit evil so fully and so gaily as when they do so for conscience sake." ("Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement, que quand on le fait par un faux principe de conscience")
Once the Jewish Council had concluded that Jesus was "a blasphemer", an enemy of God, it became acceptable for them and those who had gathered, to dehumanise Jesus and inflict upon him all manner of evil in God's name.
Prayer:
Merciful God, forgive us the evil we do to others in your name: the pain we inflict upon others in defence of our faith in you; the lives we willingly destroy to protect our way of believing; the joy we experience by mocking those who don't serve you like we do. Forgive us, in the name of Jesus, who was beaten and blooded by those who believed they were defending you in doing so. Amen.
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