How we Spit and Slap Christ in the Face

"Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him(Mat 26:67 ESV)."

As I prepare for Easter I am reading a book that has a number of Easter meditations from various authors, old and new. One by Charles Spurgeon hit me like the sting of a racquetball to my backside. Spurgeon argues that in the same way that the soldiers who spit on him and slapped him says that every time we sin we too spit in his face and slap him. The judge of all men was judged and rejected by those he died to save. This gives us a glimpse into the depravity of the human heart. They mock and reject the One who did nothing but good for them and their people during his earthly ministry. He healed their sick, he set their captives free, he opened the eyes of the blind, he was their Messiah, yet those who were put in place to shepherd and protect the people, sought with a vengeance to kill Him for seeking to save them. Our moral barometer thinks this is outrageous but every time we sin we also spit on his face, mock him as Lord, and reject the work of the cross, the One who died to set me free from the power of sin! It does not matter if it is as little as worrying about our finances, getting angry at our children, or cheating on our taxes. Every time we sin, we spit in his face and mock him! Wow! Lord, help me to feel the weight of this truth. Let me linger over it until this truth has done it’s work in my heart.

Exhortation to all pastors and bible teachers

“Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture…The call is: watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read cannot be read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well…The devil…the world…and our flesh are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brothers, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent…This evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring.” -

Martin Luther, quoted in John Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000), 101.