Hated for the Right Reasons

I wrote earlier this week about the theology of suffering and how I came to understand and embrace it through my own adversity. As we approach the triumph of Easter morning, we mustn't forget the sorrow that preceded it. I quoted Isaiah 53:3 in my article, and it bears repeating again:

"He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem."

A good number of Jesus' countrymen wer...