Jesus comfortable as a ‘pariah’

Dear Editor:

Re: “Disagreeable folks clearly are leftists” by Zoltan Lawrence ( Herald letters, July 25).

Rather than delving into the whole political mess we are in these days, referred to in a July 25 letter to the editor, I wish to expand only upon the last statement made about Jesus Christ: “It’s obvious Jesus Christ himself would be a pariah in some circles today, just as he was 2,000 years ago.”

Jesus was definitely an outsider, a pariah, an outcast, unwanted by the very people he was sent to save. That was true some 2,000 years ago and perhaps even more so today.

In Isaiah 53:3-12, Isaiah predicted this would happen 700 years before Jesus was even born.

3: He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid our faces from him…

4: Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows yet we saw him as wounded, smote by God and afflicted.

Jesus, back in his time, was particularly unpopular amongst the Scribes and Pharisees, who were religious leaders, many of whom had a legal background.

These envious men eventually trumped up false charges on which to have Jesus condemned to death via crucifixion by the Romans. His horrific death was also prophesied in Psalm 22 by David, some

1,000 years before it happened. But that was not the end of Jesus, as he was not killed but rather laid down his life for those of us who’d accept his sacrifice. Imagine that, giving up his life in a most torturous way to save his enemies.

I look forward to his soon return when he will govern this world. There will be no more violence, sin or global calamities. The earth will be a place without suffering, disease, death, or pain. He will wipe every tear from our eyes; however, we must choose Jesus in order to be saved, as those who are not for him are considered against him, there is no fence sitting.

In today’s political and economic mayhem worldwide brought about by COVID

19, I am glad to have hope for a better future, and am safe in his hands knowing that this is not my home, a better world awaits for those who love and trust in Him. Doreen Zyderveld-Hagel

Kelowna