The Bible On Trial

Heckling~

Almost any time a crowd gathers to watch a sporting event such as a high level football, baseball, or basketball game you will hear heckling. Fans of any sport have their favorite players, an by that same token they have players that they hate. So when they see an opportunity certain fans will take it upon themselves to try to influence the outcome of a game by deriding and interrupting the performance of a player by shouting at them at the most inopportune time to make them fail to make a shot, or hit a ball, in order to help their favorite player win.

Most of the time a professional athelete will ignore these attempts to disrupt their game, and eventually the heckler will stop, heckling,  seeing that what they are doing is not effective. When an athelete bites on the situation, and responds to the heckler, this just exacerbates the issue, and causes an escalation from the 'fan' who is being disruptive.

This is going on right now in the world of professional golf, where a player (and if you follow golf you know who this is) continues to respond to the heckling nearly every time it happens. The situation has gotten so bad that the Commissioner of the PGA has taken official steps to stop this practice during tournament play, before the issue become explosive.

When Jesus was in ministry here on earth He had to put up with hecklers. These hecklers were the doctors of the Law, the Scribes, Pharisees, Saducees, and leaders of Israel (and their helpers) that were trying to get Jesus to 'bite' on their comments and questions, and trap Him into making a mistake that would give them an excuse to arrest Him. Jesus was constantly being interrupted, yet never once did He  responded in an inappropriate way. 

The example Jesus set for us to follow was patience, when we are engaged with people that don't want to learn the truth. Let His words work.