Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
And They Spit on Him
January 06, 2008
“Who spit upon Him?” you cry. “Certainly I would not have spit upon Him if I had been there!” Indeed, are you suggesting that you would have been different? Would you have stepped out from the crowd and helped Him carry His cross, or would you be among those who cried for the release of Barabbas, leaving Jesus to take the judgment for this criminal?
Let us look at what it means to spit upon one from a Biblical perspective! In Leviticus, it tells us that if an unclean man of an issue even spits on a clean man, the clean man becomes unclean until evening time. In Numbers, it is recorded that when Miriam was shut out from the camp for questioning Moses’ authority, it was for seven days. For God asked the question as to whether or not, if her father had spat in her face, she would be shamed for seven days. In Deuteronomy, the Law states that if a brother should reject the wife of a dead brother, then she has the right to remove his sandal and spit in his face, saying, ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house.’
One can see that the spit of an unclean man serves to make others unclean, for man’s issue is inherently unclean. To question the authority given to chosen vessels of God, or to refuse to serve one’s brother in love and sacrifice that he, too, might find eternal life, places one under the judgment of God.
Now, we move on to contrast this with the healing power of Jesus’ spittle. He touched the ears of a deaf and dumb man, causing him to hear and, by placing His spittle on his tongue, the man could then speak plainly. He placed His spittle on the eyes of a blind man, causing him to see. Jesus’ spittle speaks of the living water from above necessary for the believer, who must be born again of this water and the Spirit if he/she is going to inherit the kingdom.
Jesus looked up after the first healing, for His body is the embodiment of the pure water from above, which was necessary to water the ground at Creation before the food could grow and life could begin. It is by the purity of His Word we are healed and able to hear as the Word connects with the Spirit in us. We then can stand on the Word of truth, which imparts His strength and gives us the authority to speak for Him. His truth and light open the eyes of understanding, so that man is no longer blinded by the Garden lies of religion and liberalism; such lies will always separate us from God.
Now, let us look next at the events leading up to the unjust judgment of the Pharisees, scribes and elders upon Jesus. Did it come as any surprise to Him? It could hardly be called a surprise when He prophesied in Matthew 10:34 that they would not only mock and scourge Him, but they would spit on Him.
This beastly group testified against Him, not all being in agreement, but rather giving conflicting evidence in false witness against Him. They did so with complete lack of understanding about the nature of the temple – not understanding it was a man-designed-and-constructed building and never the temple of God.
The witness Jesus gave to His divinity was the very testimony they did not want to hear. So they condemned Him, calling Him a blasphemer, worthy of death. And there, standing before the Judaic religious men who trusted to their own understanding, was their only hope for salvation in this life, the Man called Jesus, upon Whom they could not resist the urge to spit.
His trial moved on only after the initial religious condemnation to become a government condemnation, with the Roman soldiers also spitting on Him. Sadly at Feast time, the time for the Passover, the crowd of Israelites could have chosen to release Him but, instead, they chose to give their support to a man who had led an insurrection and had committed murder. His name was Barabbas, a man of wickedness who had the most to gain from the foolishness of these so-called chosen people of God, who had been called by Him to be a light to the nations.
An insurrection is an uprising against established authority. Miriam, Moses’ sister and prophetess, rose up against her brother. Now, the Pharisees were rising up against the authority of Jesus, which they, like Miriam, felt was their own authority, which was being threatened.
It will be no different today, when the priesthood will howl like a pack of wolves at the very idea that God will again send His messenger, who will not be one of the religious men. In fact, the messenger, the bride, will appear to be as radical to our Christian priesthood today as Jesus appeared radical to the Pharisees of yesterday.
And what is to be understood from this message? Unlike a just trial, the Pharisees declared they would no longer need witnesses to testify to Who Jesus was. They also dared Him to prophesy as they spat on Him, but He remained silent before them. How foolish these religious men were, as they put in place the basis for unity in the modern Judeo-Christian religious value-pak! Will our liberal priesthood of today ever recognize that their spit is joined with that of the Pharisees as they seek to marginalize Jesus in their religious scheme of things?
Liberalism is rampant among our priestly religious Christian leaders from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury and, from him, on down to the Moderator of the United Church of Canada. We see the failure of the Southern Baptist organization, represented by the presidential candidate for office in the United States, Mike Huckabee.
All of these men, either in office or seeking public office, claim the authority of Jesus in their lives; but ‘au contraire’, they embrace the religion of the devil. Those who support such men and their systems are like the crowd, who shouted, “Crucify Him, and give us instead the insurrection leader, Barabbas.” “His blood be on us and on our children (Matthew 27:25)” were words of foolish men, who had no idea of Who Jesus was.
You could say the entire modern religious system is giving a mixed, confused and incorrect witness as to the ‘crime of Jesus’. The entire system buckled when foreigners came into this land demanding the offense of His name be taken away, while they openly worship their gods and were allowed religious privileges in our school system, denied to our own children of faith in Jesus. Did we spit on Him when we, as His witnessing church allowed this to happen?
Did we spit on Him when we agreed to remove the name of Jesus from the military to serve justice to pagan gods of followers who, few, if any, serve our country? Do we spit on Him when we ignore His name to come together in religious unity with the Judaic religious leaders of the same group who asked for His blood to be upon them and their children? Do we spit on Him when we agree to reduce our witness to non-witnessing political correctness?
I would suggest that you take a second look at yourself and see if you are a supporter of insurrection, or a supporter of Jesus. Reconsider the matter and ask yourself whether or not you would have been one of the crowd who cried out for the release of Barabbas. Think carefully before you dogmatically retort that you never would have spit on Jesus, if you had been there.
But you are there, at this very moment as I write, and you do have to make the choice between religious liberalism and the truth of Jesus. Judgment is here and knocking at the door of the church, which is about to experience the greatest cleansing and healing from the spittle of Jesus that it has ever seen. No impurities or building programs will be left standing upon her revived apostolic foundation.