It's in Chapter 18 of the gospel of John where things start to get a little tense and dramatic. Jesus stands before the mocking interrogation of priests; outside one of his closest followers and friends denies any association with him. Jesus basically tells the high priest that he’s done nothing in secret and they might as well question the crowds who heard him.

One of the guards steps forward and slaps him. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he admonishes. “How dare you!”

I was drawn up short. Wait—what? That guy honestly just hit Jesus? Jesus!? I read it again. Sure, I knew what was coming—we all know Jesus’ world-shattering fate in just the next chapter. But for some reason I couldn’t get over that little paragraph where Jesus gets smacked. It gave me goosebumps. Did that guy realize he’d just slapped the face of God? That’s one person in the world I would not want to be. I bet he regrets it now.

When the initial shock wore off, I realized I was also furious. There was something so base, so humiliating in getting slapped and scolded. Death on a cross seemed noble and poignantly majestic in comparison. Girls slap the guy who gets too close or goes too far; parents who don’t “spare the rod” slap insolent or mouthy children. In our society, slapping isn’t really meant to wound the face—it’s meant to wound pride.

Jesus was slapped by one of us.

I cringe to think of treating him in such a way—even now it makes my skin prickle. But while I don’t think most Christians lash out at God with such violence, don't we have a similar attitude when we think, I don’t need You. I’m fine on my own? I may not consciously think it, but that response toward God pops up all the time in my life. Don’t worry about it, God. I can take care of it myself. Excuse me? I’m telling that to the all-powerful, omniscient Creator? Isn’t that a really sneaky, nasty way of humiliating him?

It blows my mind that the one who has every (and the only) right at all to pride is the one whose very nature is perfectly humble. Jesus knelt down to wash his disciples’ feet. Although they rejected him, he died as their sin offering to offer us an intimate relationship with the Almighty. Yet we who seek refuge in God are also able to strike him.

He will always turn the other cheek; so infinite is his humility and so great is his love.