The Mocked Profit

It’s a well-known fact that, in the Muslim world, insulting Muhammad, the founding prophet of Islam, will surely get one killed. I remember immediately after the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published some cartoon caricatures of Muhammad back in 2006 (which caused violent reactions by angry mobs around the world), there were vigorous debates in the media either to support its right to free speech or to condemn its lack of discretion and sensitivity to Islam (but, without exception, all condemned the violent acts)

Of all the comments that I’d read at the time, one stood out from them all — because of its poignant depiction of a major difference between Muhammad and Christ — by the prolific Reformed Baptist writer and pastor, John Piper: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produced two very different reactions to mockery (WORLD Magazine, February 18, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 7).

Piper wrote: “If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. This was His saving work: to be insulted and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God…. That’s the most basic difference between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ. For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission.”

I believe Piper was trying to remind us that while Muslims around the world became indignant because they believed their revered prophet had been mocked and disrespected, Christians were supposed to imitate Christ and called to suffer for his sake — as Paul says, “For [God] has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well” (Philippians 1:29). And “If, in fact, we suffer with [Christ] so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). But, do we?

Actually, in many respects, many Christians today have unknowingly bought into the same thinking as Muslims that we are only to honor and revere Christ and stop right there — while some liberal theologians are calling for a “bloodless” religion and condemn the orthodox Christian emphasis on the suffering and death of Christ on the cross; others are mesmerized by the socalled “health-and-wealth” or “name-it-and-claim-it” gospel, believing that once we believe in Christ, everything good will come our way!

In this Lenten season, when we once again remember the sacrificial suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, let us lift up the fact that “he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

When we do celebrate Christ’s suffering and death then, as Piper concludes, “It means that a religion with no insulted Savior will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means that Islam is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor of one who did not die and rise again to make that possible. It means that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man. And it means that his followers must

be willing to ‘share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death’ (Philippians 3:10).”

May our Triune God grant us peace to know what it means to suffer with Christ, and go with us as we walk in His way this season, that we may come to know Him more fully. Amen.

Yours in Christ,