Easter: Jesus' Last Laugh
It's the day Christians celebrate Jesus making a mockery of the concept of death for our eternal benefit, and I figured I'd commemorate it by noting how Jesus got the last laugh on those who thought death would silence him.
Jesus was targeted for death by a bunch of hypocritical pious killers in the religious community of his day who utterly despised him because he called them on their hypocrisy (and was correct in what he asserted) and basically told them they had no room to be moral scolds when their own morals were utterly lacking.
Since they couldn't use the truth against him because it made them look bad, and since trapping him in lies didn't work because he was too smart for any lies they tried to trap him with (and they did not stand the test of scrutiny), they then decided to get him killed.
And so, making use of a traitor, they hauled him off an extralegal kangaroo court where they had already declared him guilty in advance, tried to twist what little he did say (which was nothing legally culpable in any real sense) to suit their predetermined guilty verdict, then they had to further lie to the Romans (since they could not get him killed themselves) to make him out to be some dangerous revolutionary who was a threat to Rome.
While this campaign of smearing an innocent man with heinous lies and trying to get him murdered while trying to make them stick was bad enough, these craven righteous hypocrites told themselves Jesus deserved it because they hated him and tried to get the Romans to swallow their lies without looking into them so they could get away with it,
However, in doing so, matters left their hands for the most part, as the Romans had to sign off on matter after their own investigation of the facts. Pontius Pilate, the man who had to give the final say, he had the brains to get both sides of the story, realized the pious hypocrites framing an innocent man on trumped on lies were indeed just trying to make the Romans their accomplices in murder, and he initially told them he wasn't playing along and to quit wasting his time.
However, they had one even more craven card to play when they threatened to incite a REAL revolt if the Romans didn't become parties to the murder they wanted, and despite Pilate trying to use a custom where the Romans would free a nonviolent prisoner as a show of Roman fairness to buy order, the pious hypocrites riled up the Jewish people into a frenzy when Pilate was willing to free Jesus, and they only proved the truth meant NOTHING compared to their own evil desires to see innocent blood be shed when they demanded Barrabas, who had a proven violent rap sheet who did present a legit threat to Rome, be released instead of Jesus, who had been polite and cooperative to Pilate and whose story checked out as him being harmless.
Essentially, these murderous holier than thous pretty much blackmailed the Roman authorities into committing the murder of an innocent man and defended someone who was actually guilty out of sheer spite.
That was pretty galling to Pilate, who was charged with keeping the Jews in line legally, but he didn't take his trolling into committing murder lying down. Mocking the Jewish custom of washing when entering the presence of the Lord, he "washed his hands of any guilt" for basically being forced to kill an innocent man before turning Jesus over to be crucified, if only so the threat of an actual Jewish revolt would go away, but he did succeed in making sure it was on official record he only did so under duress and that he was killing an innocent man to please the lying crowd.
Of course, this did Jesus no favors, and sure enough, they crucified him and figured that would be the end of it, or so most of them thought. Some had been bright enough to remember Jesus had mentioned he would make a mockery of getting killed and return, so they convinced the Romans to guard his tomb for a few days to prevent this.
The next part is Jesus getting the last laugh. Sure enough, he arose from the dead, the Roman guards were powerless to stop him, and the same Roman authorities who had been forced to commit murder on the behalf of liars who hated an innocent man were furthered forced to lie to their own superiors to prevent getting killed for failing to do their jobs, even though both they and the pious liars they conspired with knew full well they still failed to make even death stick to the man whose blood stained both their hands.
As for Jesus, he confirmed to his disciples that not even death could stop him, despite the best efforts of those who tried so hard to destroy him.
However, Jesus didn't just troll a bunch of lying humans who resorted to murder since deceit alone about an innocent man wasn't enough, he trolled Death itself by proving he indeed was the Son of God, and in the process provided salvation for all who would believe in Will of his Father eternal life beyond the grave.
As applied to Christians living today, let me leave you some hope. Sure, you will be mocked, lied about by those that hate you, they will try to kill you in both reputation and, in some cases, even physically. And they will resort to any means to see you silenced and destroyed on this side of the mortal coil.
However, that's when Jesus dons his eternal troll face and makes sure the grave is not your final destination. Those who lied and tried to metaphorically and literally destroy you will also have to face his judgment when their time comes, and for them, death will be final.
So on this day, remember, Jesus has the last laugh, and so long as you believe in Him, no matter what may happen on this Earth by those who hate you and wish evil upon you, you too will be able to laugh along with him.
Jesus was targeted for death by a bunch of hypocritical pious killers in the religious community of his day who utterly despised him because he called them on their hypocrisy (and was correct in what he asserted) and basically told them they had no room to be moral scolds when their own morals were utterly lacking.
Since they couldn't use the truth against him because it made them look bad, and since trapping him in lies didn't work because he was too smart for any lies they tried to trap him with (and they did not stand the test of scrutiny), they then decided to get him killed.
And so, making use of a traitor, they hauled him off an extralegal kangaroo court where they had already declared him guilty in advance, tried to twist what little he did say (which was nothing legally culpable in any real sense) to suit their predetermined guilty verdict, then they had to further lie to the Romans (since they could not get him killed themselves) to make him out to be some dangerous revolutionary who was a threat to Rome.
While this campaign of smearing an innocent man with heinous lies and trying to get him murdered while trying to make them stick was bad enough, these craven righteous hypocrites told themselves Jesus deserved it because they hated him and tried to get the Romans to swallow their lies without looking into them so they could get away with it,
However, in doing so, matters left their hands for the most part, as the Romans had to sign off on matter after their own investigation of the facts. Pontius Pilate, the man who had to give the final say, he had the brains to get both sides of the story, realized the pious hypocrites framing an innocent man on trumped on lies were indeed just trying to make the Romans their accomplices in murder, and he initially told them he wasn't playing along and to quit wasting his time.
However, they had one even more craven card to play when they threatened to incite a REAL revolt if the Romans didn't become parties to the murder they wanted, and despite Pilate trying to use a custom where the Romans would free a nonviolent prisoner as a show of Roman fairness to buy order, the pious hypocrites riled up the Jewish people into a frenzy when Pilate was willing to free Jesus, and they only proved the truth meant NOTHING compared to their own evil desires to see innocent blood be shed when they demanded Barrabas, who had a proven violent rap sheet who did present a legit threat to Rome, be released instead of Jesus, who had been polite and cooperative to Pilate and whose story checked out as him being harmless.
Essentially, these murderous holier than thous pretty much blackmailed the Roman authorities into committing the murder of an innocent man and defended someone who was actually guilty out of sheer spite.
That was pretty galling to Pilate, who was charged with keeping the Jews in line legally, but he didn't take his trolling into committing murder lying down. Mocking the Jewish custom of washing when entering the presence of the Lord, he "washed his hands of any guilt" for basically being forced to kill an innocent man before turning Jesus over to be crucified, if only so the threat of an actual Jewish revolt would go away, but he did succeed in making sure it was on official record he only did so under duress and that he was killing an innocent man to please the lying crowd.
Of course, this did Jesus no favors, and sure enough, they crucified him and figured that would be the end of it, or so most of them thought. Some had been bright enough to remember Jesus had mentioned he would make a mockery of getting killed and return, so they convinced the Romans to guard his tomb for a few days to prevent this.
The next part is Jesus getting the last laugh. Sure enough, he arose from the dead, the Roman guards were powerless to stop him, and the same Roman authorities who had been forced to commit murder on the behalf of liars who hated an innocent man were furthered forced to lie to their own superiors to prevent getting killed for failing to do their jobs, even though both they and the pious liars they conspired with knew full well they still failed to make even death stick to the man whose blood stained both their hands.
As for Jesus, he confirmed to his disciples that not even death could stop him, despite the best efforts of those who tried so hard to destroy him.
However, Jesus didn't just troll a bunch of lying humans who resorted to murder since deceit alone about an innocent man wasn't enough, he trolled Death itself by proving he indeed was the Son of God, and in the process provided salvation for all who would believe in Will of his Father eternal life beyond the grave.
As applied to Christians living today, let me leave you some hope. Sure, you will be mocked, lied about by those that hate you, they will try to kill you in both reputation and, in some cases, even physically. And they will resort to any means to see you silenced and destroyed on this side of the mortal coil.
However, that's when Jesus dons his eternal troll face and makes sure the grave is not your final destination. Those who lied and tried to metaphorically and literally destroy you will also have to face his judgment when their time comes, and for them, death will be final.
So on this day, remember, Jesus has the last laugh, and so long as you believe in Him, no matter what may happen on this Earth by those who hate you and wish evil upon you, you too will be able to laugh along with him.
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