The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has forced a New Mexico college to remove crosses displayed on its campus. They were less successful, however, when they tried to force an Indiana school district to cancel a program led by two pastors.
The FFRF sponsors an annual “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” award, to be given to the best secular invocation. Due to the efforts of atheist groups like theirs, it’s not surprising that the number of Americans who think Christians are facing growing intolerance has drastically increased in recent years.
How should we respond to those who malign Christians and Christianity? Jesus’ answer to that question might surprise you.
“Grieved at their hardness of heart”
Jesus was in a synagogue with a man with a withered hand. His enemies “watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him” (Mark 3:2). He asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” (v. 4a). “But they were silent” (v. 4b), refusing to consider his question.
In response, “he looked around at them with anger” (v. 5a). But note what comes next: he was also “grieved at their hardness of heart” (v. 5b). He healed the man, and “the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him” (v. 6).
I understand why Jesus was angry at his enemies for their utter lack of compassion for the man with the withered hand. But I am impressed that he was also “grieved” (the word means to be “deeply distressed”) because of their “hardness of heart” (the phrase describes someone who is stubborn and unwilling to understand the truth).
Why would Jesus grieve for people who refused to consider the truth? He knew three facts we need to remember today.
Lost people act like lost people
Paul’s letters to the Corinthians were addressed to believers living in one of the most hedonistic cultures in the…
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