Hungry for God: Laughing at the Lord

“And they laughed at Him.”—Mark 5:39

As we follow Christ, and take steps of faith, we will be laughed at, because if Jesus was laughed at, so too shall we. Man has no place in his heart for the works of God, because God operates on a different scale than the fallen world does. In today’s passage, there was a young girl who had died and whom Jesus said was “sleeping.” The people thought Jesus out of His mind! Perhaps He was in denial, or maybe He was delusional? Or perhaps He didn’t know a dead person when He saw one!

Make no mistake, Jesus was and is the Lord of life. Man may laugh at God, but he does so at his own peril. Man will not have the last laugh on God, but God will have the last laugh at man. “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision” (Psalm 2:4), and “the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that his day is coming” (Psalm 37:13).

Laughing at man is one thing; laughing at the Lord of life is ridiculous. As the guests were present at the young girl’s house, they didn’t realize that the one who said she was sleeping was in fact the “resurrection and the life” (cf. John 11:25) and had power over death and hell!

As we walk by faith and not by sight, we will experience similar things as Jesus experienced. As He Himself said,

“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you”—John 15:20.

We will be laughed at by this world, we will be persecuted, but we must take heart in Jesus’ words:

“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world”—John 16:33.

Don’t give up when friends and family laugh at you. Pray for them, be kind to them, and let them see Jesus’ work in your life. And know that there will come a day when:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”—Revelation 21:4.

Jesus is coming again soon, and He will right every wrong, wipe away the tears from our eyes, and we shall see and be with Him who is our heart’s desire, for ever and ever. Amen.