Church is the recipient of the most mockery, I believe, ever. This may come as a surprise to you or it may not if you are attuned to scriptures such as Psalm 79:4 “We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.” or Lamentations 1:7,“Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall.”
The days of old—when the church was a fearsome place: “None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.” (Acts 5:12)
Somewhere along the line, things turned for the worse, and today the Church is so heavily mocked that the mockery has nearly become an enterprise. Gloated over day after day, it’s almost impossible to miss: cartoons, advertisements, souvenirs, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, tabloids, movies, comics, posters, bumper stickers, and the list goes on and on. That is an enormous amount of gloat for a religion. But it doesn’t stop there, the Church finds itself gloated over even from within. I hear it in the mission field, the local churches, bible colleges, and even in the leadership.
What of other religions? I never recall hearing Buddhists in Asia mocking their own religion, nor Muslims mocking theirs in the Middle East, nor have I heard much of the world mocking them either. The few times those religions are mocked, we certainly hear about it, don’t we?
But you probably don’t need to hear all that, because you probably already know it.
The stab of all this comes when we understand why the Bride is so mocked. “Jerusalem sinned grievously,” says Jeremiah in Lamenatations 1:8, “therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away.” This old tale of Jerusalem’s exile prophetically speaks a truth for us that is being repeated in this very hour. It is because of her downfall.
“…her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. Lam. 1:7
I think we could quote a multitude of preachers this last century prophetically calling out to the Church that she is in a downfall. J. Vernon McGee could quote a hundred himself. It is no mystery anymore that she has fallen into a wallowing state. So is it any wonder that the once majestic bride who made her entrance into the world by fearsome power and beauty—so that historians who wrote about the early church were amazed at her—is now exceedingly mocked as she is counted as a naked left-over and a “has-been”? How could you not mock at such a sight? The world really can’t help itself; the sight just begs for it.
How lonely sits the city that was once full of people. Distressed, mourning, weeping, mocked, widow.
But the fall is the sin, and Christ has made a way to reverse it all. If a corporate repentance for the sin were to take place, then
“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land [called Hephzibah, see Isaiah 62:4] .” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” Daniel 9:19