The “Most People Rejected His Message” or “They Hated Jesus” meme is a panel from a Christian comic that has been hilariously used to communicate unpopular messages online, much like Jesus would if He had a computer.
The meme was from a story originally used to illustrate the biblical passage Galatians 4:16, reading, “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
The comic is written more colloquially than the Bible to appeal to the youth, but the youth love to meme. It first appeared in 1997 in Charlie’s Ants, which was written by American cartoonist Jack Chick. It came to be known as the Chick Tract.
In the meme, the popular panel is decontextualized from the whole story. In it, Jesus is talking to a crowd of people and the narrative text reads at the top, “Most people rejected his message,” and then at the bottom: “They hated Jesus because He told them the truth.”
And then the crowd simply responds to Jesus’ truth in a text bubble, saying, “Shut up!”
It’s pretty funny all on its own, perhaps unintentionally. But soon people online saw its potential for more.
How did the “most people rejected his message” panel become a meme?
In 2016, Redditor PastryChefSniper shared the panel with a new text bubble for Jesus, in which he is saying, “Boy you ugly.”
This new version was widely circulated on Facebook and Reddit yet again. A new generation of people were introduced to the Chick Tract format.
The idea that Jesus would deliver ridiculous truths that everyone couldn’t stand to hear remains funny, though it has undoubtedly gotten away from Chick’s original message. So, he’s kind of like Jesus himself, in a way.
They Hated Jesus meme template:
