Assassinate

as.sas.si.nate

/əˈsæsəˌneɪt/ Show Spelled [uh-sas-uh-neyt] 

verb (used with object), as·sas·si·nat·ed, as·sas·si·nat·ing.

1. to kill suddenly or secretively, especially a politically prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.

2. to destroy or harm treacherously and viciously:

 

There have been some historic 50 year anniversaries this year...

March 5 - I was born at the St. Lucie County hospital in Fort Pierce, Florida. The world has never been the same since!!

August 28 - The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on the mall in Washington, DC.

November 22 - Riding in a 1961 Lincoln Continental Limousine next to his adoring wife Jackie, the 35th President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

 

My iWitness...

 

I just noticed that the word "Assassinate" has the word "ass" in it... twice!

I am guessing that if you are an assassin and you assassinate someone then that makes you an "ass" twice over.

 

Have you ever assassinated someone?

 

I have...

 

I have assassinated someone's reputation...
I have assassinated someone's character...
I have assassinated someone's good name...

 

I found it tempting to assassinate someone the other day. A certain person was offering accolades about someone whom I knew things about to the contrary. Praise the Lord I kept my mouth shut. There was no reason to make myself an ass twice over on that day.

 

Have you ever been assassinated?

 

I have...

 

I laugh about it now but when I got divorced, my good "single" friend Jeff opened his home to me for a couple of months. The news spread quickly and the word on the street was that the reason I got divorced and moved in with Jeff was because I was a homosexual.

 

I could go on and on about the many times I have taken a "hit" and I am sure you can too.

 

Was the character of Jesus ever assassinated?

You betcha! (That's a good Midwestern phrase!)

 

Did Jesus ever assassinate anyone?
Never!
Did he have plenty of opportunities?
You betcha!

 

Was the death of Jesus on the cross an assassination?
Nope!

 

By the very definition an assassination takes place "suddenly and secretively". Neither of which was the case for our suffering Savior.
He knew all along that people would assassinate his character and good name throughout his ministry.
He knew all along that his death by crucifixion was on the horizon. In fact, he walked right toward it.

Never once did He open his mouth...

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth." (Isaiah 53. 7)

 

As tempting as it might be to strike back, to exact revenge, to even the score, let's pray today that we would rather be the victim of an assassination over being the one to proverbially pull the trigger and assassinate someone else.

 

I am tired of making an ass of myself twice over.
How about you?

 

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and Fear not!
David!