It happens almost every time. Right before someone is going to do bad things to someone, this happens. It’s the psychological path for someone to commit violence because it creates a sense of justification in the wrongdoers mind.

And it is mockery.

What is mockery? It is making fun of and belittling another.

Mockery precedes murder.

It’s because mockery belittles someone, makes them look less and less than human, then exalts themselves to a place of self-righteousness that is not seen.

Look at it through the eyes of history.

• To commit crimes against blacks, they were labeled apes.
• To commit crimes against Jews, they were labeled vermin.
• To commit crimes against the Tutsis by the Tutus in Africa, they were called cockroaches.
• To commit crimes against children in the womb, they are called fetuses.

Mockery makes the seem like less than human. And therefore worth doing them in. Without mockery, the brain cannot handle the terrible deed they are about to do.

This happened with Jesus. Before they could murder Jesus, they engaged in mockery.

And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.  And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

Mockery hurts. When you are mocked, it is enraging. It is the violation of core respect and the value God has placed on us.

The truth is this: I have never once heard a sermon or message or preaching on the dangers of mockery.

And yet, mockery is rampant in our culture. With social media, there is much mockery going on of other people, other faiths, other political parties, and so much more.

We must speak truth. Truth is not mockery.

But how we speak that truth matters.