Depised and Rejected

‘He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.’

Isaiah 53:3

Yesterday, we talked about how salvation, which we received as a free gift, had a price, and it was the highest price. And this week, we are going to be looking at some of what Jesus went through to give us this gift we did not deserve, but so desperately needed. To bring us salvation, Jesus had to endure rejection.

How? First, the elders, religious leaders and the Jews did not even recognize that He was their Savior because He did not look like they expected. The ERV translation puts it like this

"...There was nothing special or impressive about the way he looked, nothing we could see that would cause us to like him. People made fun of him, and even his friends left him. He was a man who suffered a lot of pain and sickness. We treated him like someone of no importance, like someone people will not even look at but turn away from in disgust." - Isaiah 53:2-3

Rejected Saviour

They were expecting a Savior who would come and confront the Roman rule and save them. They were expecting a king who would come and overthrow Herod and sit in the position of power. But what they got was a baby born in a manger. There was nothing special about Jesus that could have made Him a Messiah. Yes, there was the star in the sky, but not everybody saw or understood it. There was the announcement to the shepherds, but not everybody was a shepherd, and not all shepherds were told. So, there was really nothing so special about Him.

Rejected Rabbi

“This man cannot be the Messiah if He continually goes against our culture, religion, rules and regulations. He is blasphemous, says He was there before Abraham, claims that David called Him Lord and works on the Sabbath. He calls Himself The Way? No credible messiah will go against the laws of our great leader Moses. He cannot be the Messiah” If you ask me, this is the summary of their thoughts. So they rejected everything Jesus preached and sought to entrap Him with cunny questions and fake interest in His teachings.

They rejected His power when they accused Him of working with devils and when they begged Him to leave the city for driving the demons into the pigs and costing them their business. His own home town rejected Him for being from their town. Can you believe that? They knew His parents, so He cannot be the saviour? They rejected the idea of Him so much that they chose a notorious criminal over Him.

Rejected Son

Rejection hurts. No matter where it is coming from, it sits with you for almost the rest of your life. You wrote the book, but nobody bought it. You posted the content, but nobody watched. She was supposed to say yes to your proposal and didn’t. He was supposed to marry you, but left you for another. Rejectiontion hurts, and it hurt Jesus too. Especially when He cried, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” This means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ‘ – Matthew 27:46

Don’t forget: He went through all that for you

Jesus understands rejection. So, you can come to Him with that pain of rejection, and He, the God of all comfort, will comfort you and heal your broken heart.

Shalom