The World’s Most Hated People in History
If you were asked to make a list of the most hated men in history, who would be on it?
The first name that probably comes to mind is Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany who orchestrated the Holocaust, leading to the deaths of six million Jews. Perhaps you think Ted Bundy should be on the list for his heinous crimes against women across the US during the 1970s.
Mao Zedong would also make a lot of people’s lists. Chairman Mao is responsible for causing the deaths of an estimated 45 million people through his Great Leap Forward campaign.
Joseph Stalin is certainly worth mentioning, too. From the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, he was the dictator of the Soviet Union. Like Chairman Mao, his extreme actions caused widespread starvation through famine. He ordered the execution of millions, imprisoned many more, and tortured innocent lives in labour camps, all to achieve his dream of making the Soviet Union into an industrialised society.
Another famously hated man is Jesus Christ. You may not put him on the list with Hitler and Stalin, but do you not find it peculiar that there are negative connotations attached to His name, even though He never did anything wrong? Jesus lived a humble life as the son of a carpenter, a man whom the “common people heard gladly,”¹ a man compassionate towards the poor and one who comforted the broken-hearted outcasts of society. He was a man who taught with wisdom and led a morally perfect life—so much so that even His accusers could not find any fault in Him.
Despite this, He was falsely accused, publicly ridiculed, and ultimately sentenced to death on a Roman cross—the most shameful and painful form of execution of His time. His crime? Claiming to be the Son of God and challenging the hypocrisy of religious leaders.
No one defended Him; even His closest friends deserted Him when the crowds turned against Him. Jesus was mocked, spat on, stripped naked, nailed to a cross and left to die in front of everyone. Even as He hung dying, people laughed at Him, taunting Him to save Himself if He truly was who He claimed to be: The Son of God.
Anyone who examines the life of Christ can see that Jesus was unjustifiably hated—so much so that He could honestly say, “They have hated me without reason.”²
But what about you? How do you feel about Jesus? Have you ever stopped to consider how you speak or think about Him? Maybe you use His name as a casual swear word or laugh at jokes about Him. Maybe you sigh when someone tries to bring Him up in conversation. Maybe you’ve dismissed Him as irrelevant or avoided thinking about Him altogether because you think it’s all one big fairy tale. Or perhaps Jesus’ love for you is one-sided; it’s what we call “unrequited love”.
You might not think you hate Him, but Jesus made a striking claim: “Whoever is not with me is against me.”³ In His eyes, there’s no middle ground. There’s no halfway house.
There’s no sitting on the fence when it comes to the One who claimed to be God in the flesh. Each of us must decide where we stand, and whether to accept or reject His claims.
You’re probably nowhere near the same level morally as Hitler and the other wicked men mentioned above, but the Bible defines sin as turning our back on God. We’re all guilty of this, and we all tend to feel that we can run the show, living like there is no God to whom we must one day give an account. As I’ve already mentioned, you may think Jesus is a fairy tale character, but isn’t it worth investigating a little further? Although we demonstrate that we hate Jesus by avoiding Him and His teachings, He loves us deeply. On the cross, He bore all our wrongdoing in His body and suffered and died in our place so that we can be forgiven and have our sins washed away by His blood. After His death, He was buried, and on the third day, He rose from the dead to show that He is the King who can conquer our death too and offer eternal life to all who accept Him as Lord and Saviour.
Will you make that choice? Will you consider these claims and rethink your hatred, indifference, and prejudice towards Jesus? Will you receive Him into your heart today?
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¹ Mark 12:37, NKJV
² John 15:25, NIV
³ Matthew 12:30, ESV