Jesus Christ inspired many during His three-year ministry and gained many followers; however, He also experienced rejection at the hands of many. For that reason, Jesus can empathize with us when we encounter rejection and is simultaneously a divine source of comfort and peace for us.
Jesus’ teachings and miracles are synonymous with His three-year ministry and provide us with valuable lessons in living a righteous, God-filled life, both on earth and eternally at the side of our Father God.
However, Jesus was not always appreciated, nor was He respected during His time on earth. The Son of God was rejected by friends and family, denigrated by religious leaders, and was even judged and sentenced to death by a blood-thirsty crowd whilst in His corporal form.
For this reason, Jesus is able to empathize with the rejection that we experience in our own lives. Simultaneously, as a divine being, we are able to enter His holy presence and find comfort and peace from such acts of rejection.
Let us look at the ways that Jesus can ultimately empathize with our rejection.
Rejection can manifest itself in many forms. Jesus experienced all of the following forms of rejection:
1. Disbelief. Members of Jesus’ immediate family refused to believe Jesus’ true identity as well as His assignment on earth.
In John 7:1-5, Jesus’ four stepbrothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, tried to goad Him into attending the Jewish Festival of the Tabernacles, in spite of a plot from Jewish leaders to kill Him if He entered Judea.
However, not only did Jesus’ stepbrothers care little about His safety, but they also “did not believe in Him” (John 7:5).
2. Nonacceptance. Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth twice, and both times the people of Nazarene refused to acknowledge Him as the Messiah.
In Luke 4:29-30, Jesus angered the people to such a degree that they drove Him out of town with the intention of throwing Him off a cliff.
Upon His second visit to Nazareth in Mark 6:1-3, the people again refused to accept that Jesus was anyone other than the son of Mary and a simple carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3).
They took offense that a man such as He had been bestowed the wisdom and authority to teach in the synagogue. In response, Jesus replied, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home” (Mark 6:4).
3. Disrespect: When Jesus entered Jerusalem before the Passover Festival, He discovered trade taking place in the Temple courts (Matthew 21:12-13).
Outraged at this display of disrespect for the holiness of the Lord’s House, Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the dove sellers and said, “‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:13).
4. Plotting and Conniving. After Jesus rose Lazarus from the grave in John 11:38-43, some Jews who had witnessed this event reported Him to the Pharisees. The latter called a meeting of the Sanhedrin with the High Priests, where they plotted together to take Jesus’ life (John 11:45-57).
5. Loneliness. After the Last Supper, Jesus and the disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane. However, despite Jesus’ request to the disciples to stay awake and pray with Him, they fell asleep.
Although the disciples were a mere “stone's throw” away from Jesus (Luke 22:41), Jesus felt terribly alone and asked God to take the cup of suffering He was about to drink from away from Him (Luke 22:42). As He continued to pray in anguish, Jesus’ sweat fell like drops of blood to the ground (Luke 22:44).
6. Betrayal. Jesus was betrayed by two of His disciples: Judas Iscariot and Peter.
After Jesus had been arrested and taken to the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest, Peter denied Jesus on three occasions to three different individuals (Luke 22:54-62).
Additionally, Judas Iscariot went to the High Priests and offered to deliver Jesus to them for the payment of thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas identified Jesus to the Roman soldiers with a kiss (Luke 22:48).
7. Mob Mentality. Another form of rejection is when a mass of people adopted the same judgmental mindset. This happened at a public clemency hearing organized by the Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, in Matthew 27:21-26.
Every year at the Passover Festival, the reigning governor of Judea offered to release a prisoner of the crowd’s choosing.
However, as a result of the Jewish leader’s promptings, those gathered chose to not only have the ill-reputed agitator and murderer Barabbas be set free, but they also turned rowdy and caused an uproar in their fervent desire to have Jesus crucified.
8. Mockery. In Mark 15:16-20, Jesus was taken to the Praetorium after His sentencing, where Roman soldiers put a purple robe on Him and set a crown of thorns on His head.
They then struck Him repeatedly with a staff and spit on Him while they jeered, “Hail King of the Jews!” (Mark 15:19).
Jesus’s greatest rejection did not come from man however but from God.
Jesus took all of our sins — past, present, and future — with Him to the Cross of Calvary. They were nailed to the Cross with Him and crucified along with Him.
As God cannot exist in the presence of sin, Jesus endured temporary separation from His Father so that His death could pay the bond price for our freedom.
For that reason, Jesus cried out to God “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46), which derives from Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Though Jesus may have been temporarily rejected by God, we need never experience being rejected by our Father, because Jesus is the spiritual bridge between us and God through His sacrifice.
It is because of Jesus’ first-hand experience with rejection that we can identify with Him and approach Him as a friend who will comfort us, empathize with us, and be a role model for us in how we can respond to our own rejection.
Furthermore, God can turn any evil into good (Genesis 50:20). Facing rejection will help define the purpose that God has for you, will help you to ignore naysayers, and will show you who your true friends and allies are.
Rejection is a ride through the valley; however, the good thing is you get to offload what isn’t serving you and leave it behind in the shadowy darkness where it belongs.
Therefore, if you are currently dealing with rejection, I understand you, for that is what my life story is also momentarily about.
I remind myself daily that this season too, shall pass, and I pass this remembrance onto you. God will lead you out of the valley soon, my friend, just keep on believing.
For further reading:
Why Did Jesus Pray 'Let This Cup Pass from Me'?
Why Did the People Choose Barabbas over Jesus?
Who Is to Blame for Jesus’ Death?
Why Did Jesus Ask Peter if He Loved Him?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/kirstypargeter
Madeline Kalu is an Australian Christian writer and the co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder Blog and The Proverbs 31 Home. She is also the co-author of the “My Year of Miracles 2024” journal, which encourages a daily reflection on the miracles that God performs in our lives throughout 2024. Madeline lives in Germany with her husband Solomon and the family’s two cats, who were rescued from the Ukrainian war zone.