Why do you strike Me?

Divine Touchstones #21
WHY DO YOU STRIKE ME?
John 18:23

​Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?”
As followers of Jesus we should not expect to be treated any different than Jesus.  Yet we are surprised in our humanity, when another being strikes us either physically, spiritually or emotionally.  There is no justice in that.  We are all children of the most high God and are His image bearers; therefore we bear His dignity and are His representatives.  From the lowliest to the noblest of people, we are all His torch bearers and contain within ourselves His DNA, the divine presence given through His Holy Spirit, as well as the eucharistic presence of Our Lord. Therefore, it is surprising and also confusing when other believers treat us with disdain or as something to be feared or loathed.  As if any good could come from a rotten tree, or as if the camp of Satan were actually building up the Kingdom of God through us.  Didn’t Our Lord have to deal with these same spirits in people when He walked the earth?  As the word says we battle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities of darkness.  And again As our Lord states in His word, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, so if we do good works for the glory of God, then we do so in the name of the Lord Jesus and His kingdom of light, and not for the kingdom of darkness.  Light dispels darkness, just as truth dispels lies. As Jesus said,  do not believe me based on my words alone, but believe because of the works that I do in my Father's name.  Eventually the fruit of the tree will be recognized for what it is, and the tree will stand or fall (bearing witness to its own self) according to its fruit.  Woe to those who cast blame and look with evil eyes at their neighbors and speak against them falsely, while they are themselves infected with spirits of malice and envy. Let them seek to remove the plank out of their own eyes first, before trying to remove the splinter from their neighbors eye.  These belong to the camp of the Pharisees and Hypocrites, the religious spirits who do not recognize themselves to be whitewashed tombs, purified on the outside but spiritually dead inwardly.  But Our dear Lord suffered all these things for our sakes too, so that we could also find solace in His humanity. Although He is God, Jesus emptied himself of His divinity and became a man and chose to become a baby born in a manger to completely identify with us in all of our life stages!  He has been through it all and is there for us during all of our life’s ups and downs.  Often He elevates those who are most despised and hated, those who seek not the fame and the fortune of this world, but those despising the world (and emptying ourselves of it and its empty promises) we cling to Him and Him alone.  This is the narrow path of righteousness, the one less traveled, the one that leads to the Eternal Kingdom of God.  Prayers and Blessings family!  Keep up the good fight of faith!  We are almost there!  Let’s continue on strong to the finish line in the joy of the Lord! Trusting entirely in Him for our righteousness, our redemption and our justification in due time.  This is the longing of the saints.
​🙏🙌🏻🔥
Love 💕 Maria @onesmallflame.com