Mocking Christians and Christianity is not a new phenomenon.
One of the earliest pieces of Roman graffiti was scratched onto a plaster wall, depicted a young man worshipping a crucified figure with a donkey head. The Greek depiction translates as “Alexander worships his god”.
According to Wikipedia, the “Alexamenos graffito” (also known as the graffito blasfemo) is a piece of Roman graffiti scratched in plaster on the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy, which has now been removed and is in the Palatine Museum. The graffito is difficult to date, but has been estimated to have been made around the year 200 AD. The graffito was apparently meant to mock a Christian.
For the early Romans, the momentous news about Jesus was complete nonsense. The Apostle Paul said similar in 1 Corinthians 1: 18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”. The word ‘foolish’ is the Greek word moros, from which we get the word moron.
Romans and others living in the early centuries AD thought that Christians were morons because they put their confidence in a God who was crucified. Only the worst criminal, treasonous, riff-raff were crucified. Yet, Christians believed that Jesus was and is the unique God-man, the King of the Universe. How moronic.
In many ways our world is much the same.
Simply watch the Olympic Games 2024 Opening Ceremony.
One of the scenes parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting. The segment, which resembled the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his apostles sharing the last meal before his crucifixion, featured drag queens and a singer depicting the Greek god of wine, Dionysus.
However, we as Christians should not be surprised when secular-humanists behave like secular-humanists. Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They cannot see the truth of the glory of Christ.
In other words, we should be more sad than mad.
Jesus wept over the city that would crucify him.
There are thousands and millions of precious people, including the organizers of the Opening Ceremony, who don’t know their right hand from their left (Jonah 4:11), and are without Christ and without solid hope.
Perhaps the disastrous, flippant opening ceremony should drive us towards renewed prayer for our lost world, alongside renewed thoughtful apologetics and bold evangelism.
The gospel of Jesus continues to be utter foolishness to the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 1:20), but in reality it is the power of God to save (Romans 1:16).
God always chooses the weak and foolish to shame those who think they are powerful and wise.