Jesus Knows Rejection

Text: Luke 22:63-71

There are times in life in which everything we have invested in a given endeavor just plain fails. It's not a matter of being misunderstood; those who rejected us knew full well what we were doing and either didn't care about or rejected the entire project. Perhaps they were firmly and actively opposed to it.

Jesus had known the acceptance and approval of the crowds for much of his public life. Yes, there had been a few confrontations along the way, but in the writing of the gospel accounts we have a generally favorable attitude toward Jesus from most of the people who had gone out of their way to see and hear him.

It was one thing for Jesus to know that the events of his last week in Jerusalem would happen; it must have been quite another to actually, as a complete human being, experience the physical, psychological, and emotional turmoil those events would bring. Once he was out of the sight of any of his close followers, the abuse began in earnest. It started with the guards. A hardened bunch, calloused as a needed defense for their psychological survival, they beat him and had a joking time while doing it.

Then came the decisive rejection. The ones in charge of the people he came to redeem--his own beloved people--soundly denied his mission and his very being. When he affirmed his identity as the one who would sit at the right hand of God, the case against him was closed, even though, of course, he was speaking the truth.

Being in the right and knowing it to be so is not a guarantee of acceptance in our fallen world. This is especially so in regard to the contemporary culture's attitude toward Christian truth claims, but it occurs in other areas of life as well. It could be legal, relational, or work related; in any of these areas we could be righteous and be rejected nonetheless, perhaps at great cost. When this occurs, pray to the Christ who once stood where you now stand, in confidence that you will stand one day where he now reigns and where he awaits with full acceptance.