Terms of Respect

Before reading this blog please watch this video…

Now, most of you probably have heard of this incident with Senator Barbara Boxer. It has been plastered all over the news and the internet. My dad was the first one who showed me this clip, and I was very angry at Senator Boxer. Well, I didn’t like her in the first place because of some of the things she has done, but this angered me greatly.

How could she ask an army general to not call her “MA’AM”?? The poor general was just following protocol and she has the audacity to tell him that she’s worked hard for her “title” and she would rather he use that term rather than “ma’am”! I couldn’t believe she would say something to a man who has worked with great diligence to earn his title! Do you think if she called him “sir” that he would ask her to call him “general” because he worked hard for it? I think this is absurd. Apparently Senator Boxer doesn’t know that “ma’am” is a term of respect, not a put-down.

It angered me to know that Senator Boxer could put down a man who fights for her own country. And yet, the general complied with her haughty request, and called her “Senator Boxer” instead of “ma’am”. I don’t think I could have done that. If I was in the general’s place, I would have called her “Senator” but with a lot of sarcasm.

I respect the general greatly for obeying her when it would have been easy to disregard her wishes. That takes a lot of self-control!

This whole incident concerning titles and terms of respect got me to thinking. I paralleled it with the times in the Bible when Jesus walked on this earth. Do you think Jesus was called by the names that were respectful to Him? Shouldn’t he have been called the Messiah, Almighty, Prince of Peace, and the Son of God?

And yet He was beaten, and mocked. The soldiers called Him the “king of the Jews”, but it was not meant as a term of respect, it was a slam against who He was. The soldiers did not believe that He really was God’s Son, so they mocked Him mercilessly. Throughout His time on earth, He was scorned, beaten, crucified, and disregarded. Jesus deserved the highest of praise, and yet He accepted the lowest of insults.

Should Senator Boxer be so concerned about her title? She is but a woman on earth for a short time only, and yet she is concerned about what she is called. Jesus should have been called Christ, and yet He was called a liar. Jesus was not concerned about His title, but about what kind of legacy He was leaving behind.

Jesus showed that a title does not matter here on earth. We are all equal in God’s eyes, therefore no one is higher than another. Perhaps Senator Boxer should be more concerned about what she does in office rather than what name she is called by.
Jesus should have been called the Lion of Judah, the Word of God, Christ, the King, and the author of Life, and yet we still scorn His name. Perhaps we should all take a lesson from Him.