9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.
My comments here, on the surface, may seem to contradict
Nephi’s statement that “the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge [the
Lord] to be a thing of naught.” However, what I would like to do is draw a
distinction between different kinds of disdain, as expressed by the world’s
wicked. A thing of naught would be something with no value, or worthless. If
something is truly of no value to someone, whether righteous or wicked, it is
merely discarded. That’s why we get rid of trash. But just because trash has no
value to us (not even touching on the subject of what one person decides is
trash, another finds to be of value), does not mean that we complain or abuse
it. We don’t get angry at the trash; we simply remove it without a lot of
emotional investment or drama.
That’s all well and good for things, but it’s a bit different when it comes to people. A person who is judged as a
“thing of naught” is usually ignored. This can be seen in the case of homeless
people or beggars. Most people ignore them until they become a threat of some
sort to safety or comfort, etc. This is when you start to see a division in how
things of naught are treated. Those on the Lord’s side are more likely to deal
with the situation in a loving and respectful way. Those on Satan’s side (those
committing iniquity) are more likely to be abusive, whether physically or
emotionally, but the same level of respect will less likely be shown.
In Christ’s case, even though the world doesn’t value His
teachings, they can’t ignore the threat He is to their way of life. So the
level of abuse goes up. The wicked will never be able to stop the gospel
message; the best they can do is stop the messengers. That’s why so many
prophets die a martyr’s death. For the Savior, just killing him wasn’t enough.
They had to abuse him first by scourging him, smiting him, and spitting upon
him. If He were truly a thing of no value to them, they probably would have
simply ignored him, being beneath them. But Christ represents the biggest
threat that ever lived to Satan and those who do iniquity. That’s why I say
that the gospel message may have been of no value to them, but Christ himself needed
to be dealt with. He was a threat, not a thing of naught.
