Jesus was Bullied

If Jesus were alive today, would you defend Him from His bullies?

The headline in the Dessert Rattler on Newsvine.com reads:

Korean Student Who Shot Dead Seven in Gun Rampage, "Was Mocked by His Classmates"

A 43-year old male, Korean nursing student went on a shooting rampage killing seven people and wounding three others at his former college.  This was a small Christian College in Oakland, California.  His younger classmates would tease, disrespect, and laugh at him for his poor English skills.  He felt mistreated and was isolated as a result.  He was expelled from school for retaliating by threatening bodily harm to his classmates.  He returned at a later time to seek revenge.

Incessantly mocking, teasing, mistreating, and threatening someone is bullying.  So is using authority or strong persuasion to push someone into a corner to accomplish an objective.  Forming a group of two or more for the purpose of mocking or singling out weak, different, or unique individuals is bullying.  Bullying can take place in one instance or can occur for a period of time that can last up to several decades.  There are so many forms of bullying and different ways bullying hurts people and destroys lives.  There are even levels of bullying on Facebook that are so divisive that a simple comment about favoring certain individuals or a photo that shows only certain individuals were invited to an event can set off victims who can understandably feel hurt, offended, and isolated. 

What does the bible say about bullying?  Based on my findings, the word bullying is synonymous with Oppression.  Someone who oppresses another using their authoritative position to unjustly impose their rule over another; unfair or unjust judgment in the form of mocking, mistreating, or coercing someone is bullying.  Basically making someone feel “less than”, threatened, stressed, intimidated, or pushed, causing them to back down, isolate, withdraw, or retaliate is bullying.

Job 35:9
People cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.

Psalm 73:8
They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

From the moment Jesus was arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane, He was chained, tortured, and bullied.  He suffered abuse at the hands of the Roman soldiers, the Pharisees, and Pontius Pilate.  At His trial before the Sanhedrin He was mocked, beaten, and was spit on.  Between His trial, His brutal punishment, and His crucifixion He was bullied by the Roman soldiers receiving both physical and mental abuse through undeserved roughness, taunts, and jabs. 

Isaiah 53:3

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Jesus quietly endured his slaying without protest or opposition of any kind. 

Isaiah 53: 7-8

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

In the case of this shooter, he didn’t walk away quietly.  He felt that taking revenge with a gun and taking lives was his only restitution for the wrongs inflicted on him.  He faced many hardships in his life prior to attending this school which included moving to this country and losing his mother and brother on different occasions.  He attempted to better his situation by taking up nursing, but was met with opposition as he suffered mocking and teasing at the hands of his classmates who ganged up on him.  No one came at his defense when he was brow beaten, including the school's administrator. 

I in no way condone the behavior of this shooter or agree with the price that was paid for the bullying he suffered.  At the same time, I am outraged at the behavior of those Christian Nursing students.  What a joke!  The bullying should’ve never happened.  The fact that this kind of behavior was overlooked at a Christian College was a grave injustice; which ended with tragic consequences.  These students should have been disciplined by practicing Christian Love by apologizing to their weaker troubled Brother in Christ. Perhaps assisting him in his English would’ve softened the blows.  I don’t even consider this disciplinary action, but our God-given duty to do the right thing!  We are commanded not to withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is our power to act (Proverbs 3:27).

When we despise others, the bible tells us that we are murderers (1 John 3:15).  How much more when we form words from what springs forth from our hearts and hurl them at our victims, piercing their spirits with bullets?  Crime scene investigators can name an exact gun based on the bullet.  They can even determine the exact hour, distance, and trajectory the weapon was fired based on where the bullet is lodged in the victim’s body.  Do you have victims lying around riddled with your bullets?  God is the crime scene investigator and He has identified the assailant and the victim.  We are no better than the Roman soldiers when we mock and take jabs at our victims.  Do what is right.  Confess and repent (1 John 1:9).  Then make peace with your victim(s).  God doesn’t turn a blind eye to atrocities and wrong doings.  In the bible, He allowed David to slew the bully Goliath and He saved His people from the cruel hands of the Egyptian oppressors.  He has marked bullies and oppressors with a target and will not allow their rampage to continue.  "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35).

Proverbs 17:5

Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

On the day Jesus was crucified, everyone stood by watching, in fear of receiving the same fate.  And as He hung on the cross, again He was bullied.  Luke 23:39-43 tells us He hung between two thieves.  “One of them who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”  The other criminal could’ve rallied with his fellow inmate continuing the insults, but instead came to Jesus’ defense, realizing his sins and wrongdoings; he spoke out against the bully. “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”   I’m sure in that moment God saw his repentant heart defending Jesus and gave him enough breath to say his last words.  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Which one of these are you?  Whether we bully someone or not, we are just as guilty if we stand by and watch an innocent victim get bullied. The choice is yours. 

Psalms 34:15-16

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth.