Jesus Knew the Sting of Rejection

“He was despised and rejected—

    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

    He was despised, and we did not care.”

Isaiah 53:3

 

Jesus was perfect.

He was faultless.

He never misspoke and he never did the wrong thing.

Yet, even in His perfection, He still managed to offend people.

Imagine that!

These offenses caused Him to be rejected by those He came to die for.

Have you ever felt the bitter sting of rejection?

If you draw breath on planet earth the answer is probably an emphatic YES!

Who hasn’t tasted rejection – it seems to be part of every life.

And, as we read above, rejection was even a part of the life of Jesus – the sinless Son of God.

If Jesus couldn’t escape it why do we think we can?

Why do we falsely think that if we were just a bit thinner, maybe a little bit less homely, a tad more wealthy or had more brains people would readily accept us for us.

Often, but not always (and we will look at the exceptions this week) rejection has nothing to do with us as much as it has to do with sin.

People sometimes rejected Jesus because they found His message offensive.

While He did not set out to deliberately offend – His words had that impact.

When Jesus was rejected, how did He handle it?

What do we do when faced with rejection?

How do we overcome one of the more stingingly painful parts of life?

Let’s work through that process and answer that question over the next few days.

You may not be perfect.

You may not be faultless.

But with God’s help you can still get over rejection in your life.