Someone asked me this past Wednesday before midweek worship if I was ever concerned about the possible outcome of the national election. I told her I was but that there was a distinct moment for me when my uneasiness became something more like attentive anticipation. By “uneasiness,” I mean that it looked to be anyone’s game. President Trump was doing relatively well. But so was Kamala Harris. For as weak a candidate as she was, donating gaffe after gaffe to Trump’s campaign, her numbers still looked strong.

But then, as I said, my concern went away, instead becoming attentive anticipation. By this, I mean I was no longer wondering who would win but rather what was going to befall the Democrats for something they’d done.

Here’s what I mean—and by the way, I shared these same things with my questioner and a few others who’d gathered to listen.

On April 15, 1912, the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, was reported to have said of his new charge, “Not even God can sink this ship.” Hubris was at the helm, and Captain Smith made good on his taunts. He barreled dangerously through icy North Atlantic waters. However, he sideswiped an iceberg at 22 knots. The unsinkable Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, the ship’s maiden voyage.

Another similar story came to mind. Tancredo Neves ran for the Brazilian Presidency in the mid-1980s. During his campaign, he famously noted that if his party managed to rally 500,000 votes, not even God could prevent him from the Presidency. He was elected on January 15, 1985. He was to be inaugurated a few months later, on March 15. However, the night before his inauguration, he got very sick. He died thirty-eight days later, having never assumed the office.

There are other stories like these that I could have shared. But I didn’t. And I won’t do so here, either. I think you get the idea. That said, Saint Paul wrote rather crisply in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked.” When God scribbled these words through Paul’s pen, He wasn’t kidding around. Come to think of it, Jesus more than tipped His hat to potential repercussions for mocking Him in the Gospel reading appointed for this morning’s worship. In Mathew 9, just as the Lord enters Jairus’s house to raise his daughter from the dead, Jesus tells the professional mourners to leave, implying their services were no longer required. Specifically, the Lord said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping” (v. 24a). But what was their response?

“And they laughed at him” (v. 24b).

The next verse is crucial. We learn that before working His miracle, Jesus put the crowd outside (v. 25). Interestingly, the word used for “put outside” is ἐξεβλήθη. It’s the same word used to describe Jesus’s actions relative to demons in texts like Matthew 9:34 and Mark 16:9. It means to cast out or expel. In other words, it’s an exorcism term. In the situation involving Jairus’s daughter, the scoffers were treated like demons and cast out.

Before I tell you why I’m sharing these things, let me say two things. First, Jesus was mocked horribly during His passion, and He did nothing about it. It had to be that way. He submitted Himself into the domain of darkness (Luke 22:53), letting it have its way with Him for our rescue. Second, I should admit that God is mocked daily. Every time we sin, we mock Him. Unfortunately, that’s the sin-nature’s way. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit given by the Gospel for faith are we enlivened to repent of this disposition and instead be found desiring to love and seek faithfulness to Him. Furthermore, God reminds us that when this re-creation happens, it’s very likely we’ll join Him in being hated (John 15:18-27). We’ll be mocked, too.

But remember, this also works in reverse. When we’re mocked, God is mocked. Indeed, Jesus said, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16).

In most cases, I think we can say that people rejecting us, ridiculing our supposed backwater ways as Christians, and calling us names is no big deal. You know, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me” and all that. Sure, the words sting a little, but we survive. Nevertheless, America is on an increasingly aggressive trajectory toward employing those sticks and stones alongside the hurtful words. Christians are being physically attacked, going to court, losing their jobs, suffering permanent reputation damage, and so many other dreadfulnesses, all for the sake of faithfulness to Christ. Some of you may remember I just received a rather offensive glitter bomb in the mail this past Thursday. Still, that’s nothing. I’ve been spit on before, too. My point: The contempt for God and His people is no longer harbored secretly, only revealing itself in conversation at elitist cocktail parties. It’s out in the open, and it’s getting worse. Concerning those at the highest levels of government, for the most part, it seems they’ve been careful enough politically to avoid vocalizing the contempt. However, not anymore. In the same spirit as Captain Smith, Tancredo Neves, my glitter-bomb-sending fan, the lady who spit on me, and the laughing crowd thrown from Jairus’s house, Christ and His followers were brazenly mocked on the world’s stage by the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.

On October 17, 2024, Grant Beth and Luke Polaske, two college students attending a Harris campaign rally, were moved to call out “Christ is King” and “Jesus is Lord” when Harris began a full-throated commendation for abortion during her speech. Immediately, the surrounding crowd began taunting and shoving them. No sooner than this happened, Harris paused and spoke directly to Beth and Polaske, saying laughingly, “You guys are at the wrong rally.” Stoked by her seemingly pithy words, thousands of event-goers erupted in jeering applause.

In one sense, and likely unwittingly, Harris betrayed her secret belief. Christ and His people were not welcome at her rallies. In another sense—and somewhat ironically—she affirmed the truth of Saint Paul’s rhetorical questioning, “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). Indeed, Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12). He calls His Christians the same thing in Matthew 5:14. Harris and her crowds behaved as darkness. But what should anyone expect from the party that calls for abortion on demand and at every stage of fetal development, the spreading of LGBTQ Inc.’s infectious mind virus ideologies, and the promotion of so many other atrocities? What fellowship can there be between light and darkness, between Christians and such ungodliness?

In his own words, Polaske remembered Harris offering a wave and an accompanying “evil smirk” as security escorted him and Beth from the arena. Go figure. Beth told Fox News, “We were heckled at, we were cursed at, we were mocked, and that’s the biggest thing for me personally. In reflection of the event, Jesus was mocked. You know, his disciples were mocked.”

But God is not mocked.

Harris lost her election bid. In fact, I heard on the news driving into the office this morning that she lost by margins in particular states few believed were historically or mathematically possible.

I will not assume that I know the hidden will of God. Candidates win, and candidates lose. Still, God’s revealed will—His holy Word—has declared, “God is not mocked.” This is not a complicated saying. Knowing this, when I first heard about Harris’s words to Polaske and Beth, I went and listened for myself. As I said at the beginning, what I heard turned my uneasy concern into attentive anticipation. I was no longer anxious that Trump might lose. Strangely, I knew in my gut he wouldn’t. Instead, I waited and wondered what might happen in response to the broad-sweeping mockery demonstrated by a world leader with mass influence. I assumed an electoral exorcism at minimum.

Observing only the election results, it sure seems like the “Christ doesn’t belong here” position was cast out. Still, I think more is coming. But that’s just me. I’m not necessarily looking for something more, but as I said, I am attentively aware.

In the meantime, we go forward and rejoice in what promises to be a breath of fresh air in America. But whether it is or isn’t, we go “not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).

I can tell you one thing for sure: mocking God is not in accordance with His will. If you do it, there will be consequences.