These People are Killin' Me!


I have this habit of over-dramatically saying, "This person wouldn't even listen to Jesus Christ himself!" when I get particularly frustrated with a difficult person (ahem...teen). When I say it, I am honestly just being sassy and maybe even a bit thoughtless.

This morning I was working on the passage I will be teaching in Sunday school this week, Isaiah 52 and 53, where Jesus is described as the "suffering servant." I freshly realized that Jesus did actually come in the flesh to difficult, stubborn people. In fact, he is even now calling all of us mule-headed folks, and many times it doesn't make any difference. Every person still has the freedom to choose. Will we run our own show, or listen to Jesus and let him be our Lord?

I would also like to point out that when he did come, he was killed by the very people he was in the process of saving.

So from my perspective as his follower, should I be surprised by difficult people? Uh, no. If Jesus met with resistance, I shouldn't be shocked with I encounter the same. Maybe instead I should be affirmed. I need to remember that, on this Christian journey of faith, ease and success are very different from faithfulness. In fact, the very presence of a struggle just might mean that I am acting as an ambassador for Christ.

"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities." 
Isaiah 53:10-11 NKJV

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