In the past few weeks I have found
myself tempted to reply with sarcastic innuendoes when people would say things
that hurt me. I began to reflect on this attitude, and asked God to bring
conviction upon my heart, and share His wisdom with me regarding it.
My first thought was to go to
God’s word, and explore it topically. What I found really opened my eyes to
just how harmful sarcasm can be. When Jesus was crucified, the soldiers mocked
him sarcastically:
·
Matthew 27:28-29 And they stripped Him, and
put a scarlet robe on Him. And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on
His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him
and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
The Greek word for “mocked” is
empaizo and it means, to jeer at, i.e. deride.
To ‘jeer’ is defined as, you
guessed it, sarcasm! It means, to
utter severe, sarcastic reflections; to scoff; to deride; to flout; to make a
mock of.
In this world of high tech
gadgets, the Internet has become a means of communication worldwide in an
environment where there is no face-to-face contact, and human emotions are
secure behind the glowing light of a PC monitor.
On message boards and in chat
rooms across the country, it seems so easy to get careless, and shoot from the
hip. Reacting in a way that derides
the other person, or swaps insult for insult, is not only harmful to the one
doing it, but to the Lord Jesus himself.
·
Matthew
25:40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I
say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine,
even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ NAS
I cannot justify my sarcasm by
saying that I am “passionate” about certain topics. I refuse to give my flesh
this luxury.
It seems to me that sarcasm is
especially infectious where there is an environment of highly intelligent minds
interacting. There are such subtle ways to make comments that will poke, jab
and dig, but I know this is not the way Jesus wants me to communicate. King
Herod treated Jesus with contempt and sarcasm:
·
Luke 23:11 And Herod with his soldiers, after
treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous
robe and sent Him back to Pilate.
As I meditated upon this, I
realized that sarcasm is connected to a much deeper issue of the heart…anger.
When I get hurt, I feel anger. Instead of allowing the Lord to be my comfort,
and looking through the other person’s eyes, and trying to identify with their
pain, I just want to lash back. So I am seeking the Lord Jesus, my Parakletos,
to show me day by day, from one circumstance to the next, how to be a demonstration
of his love, mercy, tenderness and compassion.
·
1 Peter 3:8-9 To sum up, let all be harmonious,
sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning
evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for
you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing
NAS
By the way, if I have offended
anyone with any kind of sarcastic innuendo, I humbly ask for your forgiveness,
and say a heartfelt, “I’m sorry.” I am endeavoring to share my views in the spirit
of Christ.
Love to all,
Craig B.
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