Skip to main content

Rejected

How do you handle rejection? As a kid, it was my worst nightmare. I like to be accepted. I hate to be rejected. I feel rejected when I'm rejected. 

Jesus was rejected. Isaiah says that he was "despised and rejected." That is even worse than just rejected. He was the most despised person in History. Weird when you think about it. He who when he spoke the crowd marveled, was totally rejected. 

On His homecoming, in a town of 300, the people listened as he read from the Word. He was handed the Isaiah scroll. He opened it to the exact spot for the moment and read. He read of the Messiah, and he stopped just before the "Judgement" part. As he rolled it up, he said something that didn't win him any "acceptance" points. "This day, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears."

He could have said just about anything else and not been troubled. However, when he said that, the people were livid with rage! "This carpenter man, this son of Mary, this brother to those lugs we know as José, James, Judas. Who does Jesus think that he is? He's poor just like us!"

With that, Jesus was yanked from the synagogue and pushed to the cliff. Their intention was not a touristic view. They wanted to kill him! Why? He was despised and rejected! It was God's will for him. 

So, how did he handle it? He did a few miracles and left. He helped the few who believed in him. Then he went to surrounding villages and taught the Gospel of the Kingdom. 

I would have been tempted to quit. I would have quit! No doubt. I don't like rejection, especially by my kin. My kin and I are close in a weird, "Jewell-like" way. We love each other, but we don't spend much time telling each other. Funny, isn't it. More weird than funny. 

However, I believe that all of my kin love me. They support me in prayer. Some even with monetary gifts. If they rejected me, I would be depressed. I might crawl into my hole and bury myself. Maybe. 

Jesus is my example. Funny really. Just after he was rejected, he went and taught. He then called His disciples and sent them out with nothing but their smiles and his message. 

Do you think that he was preparing them for rejection? I do because they were. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daughter and dog...

About six months ago we discovered that Ann was pregnant and were very excited for she and Jackson. We will have babies on this side and that of the Atlantic. We weren't prepared for that news and we we were even less prepared for the news that our little dog is pregnant. To date we have spent more on the dog than on Annie (don't tell her... Ann that is). Ann has yet to discover whether her baby is a boy or girl. Both ultrasound images were inconclusive. Though I did some further investigation of my own and was startled with what I found. to me it looks as if the baby is definitely a boy and has some resemblance from both sides of the family. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
3 comments
Read more

Urgent Prayer (part 2)

Does God ever give you a gut punch? He did that just a few days ago when I watched a missionary story from the other side of the world. It was short but poignant, and it punched me in the belly button and brought a few tears too. One thing that shook me was the final statement that the missionary made. He was questioning himself and said, I wonder if what I have done will make a difference. This question comes to a missionary's mind now and again as they ponder how vast God's world is and how tiny one’s work is. As I thought, and identified, with his sentiment, the Lord brought a verse to mind that I had used recently in a youth talk. It was this one in John 12:24, “ Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ” When, in Matthew, the sower sowed his seed, it was the Word of God. Here in John, Jesus indicates that the seed is the life of the servant. Jesus talked of his comi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Entertaining Angels

Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hospitality is a gift. It can also be a learned trait. Some people seem as if having strangers in their homes is normal and natural. Others have to fight against themselves in order to have friends over for a meal.  The author of Hebrews says that some have entertained angels when they thought that they were helping a stranger. That's weird. This statement brings questions to mind. Do angels eat? Of course, silly, they eat angel food cake!  Seriously, who in the Bible entertained angels by accident? Well, how about Abraham, Lot or Jacob? Granted, Jacob's treatment of the Angel of the Lord was questionable. But he did wrestle the night away, when in fact that angel could have dislocated Jacob's hip early in the match.  Abraham, read Sarah, prepared a big meal and Lot had to offer ...
Post a Comment
Read more