Living Like Jesus: Abuse And Rejection In The Christian Church Part Four

By studying the Bible, we can learn tools to overcome every obstacle including rejection. We can discover keys to overcoming rejection that point us to the “How To” walk through these experiences. Jesus was hardly a stranger to rejection, yet we see His perfect response to the messages of rejection. He was not moved in His identity, His plans or purposes. He did not respond with anger or negativity. He did not allow it to corrupt Him or His behavior, but maintained godly focus, holy thinking, a pure heart, motives, and actions.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Luke 13:34-35 NIV

In this scripture Jesus displays a gentleness, sadness and grief, toward those who killed the prophets and rejected and then killed Him. He doesn’t focus on the rejection and offense. Instead of desiring to hurt the people who hurt those God sent to them, He wants to draw them to Him. He stays fixed on His purpose and retains a pure heart. He knows, regardless of what He was experiencing through these trails, that He is blessed as a servant of God with a divine purpose even though He faced pain emotionally, relationally, spiritually, and physically. He desired to teach, comfort and protect those He saw as desolate.

Do we see those who attack us as desolate? Can we look through our pain to our purpose and remain focused in the knowledge of who we are in God seeing ourselves the way He sees us versus through the eyes of those who reject us? Jesus accomplished this and so can we.

Jesus was threatened and rejected from the church. The Pharisees were religious leaders who wanted to trap Jesus. They warned Him that He was in danger. Jesus would not be intimidated and was not afraid of danger. Jesus spoke to the whole nation, not just the Pharisees who had tried to provoke Him. The people had been given many opportunities to repent and be saved, but they had refused to heed God’s call. What irony. It was those who did not detect their own danger that gave Jesus the warning, so in reality those doing the warning were in real and eminent danger not Jesus!

The nation rejected God’s loving invitation to His feast and even killed God’s servants who brought them the messages and invitation! This rejection did not alter our Lords focus, attention, thinking, core beliefs or life skills; however, it did hit his emotions because He felt sadness and grief at the unbelief and rebellion of those around Him. We will also feel the sting of rejection in our emotions but if we follow the keys that the Bible reveals we can overcome it without being harmed by it.

In the world Jesus had an avid enemy in Herod, a powerful leader in the government who want to kill Him, the ultimate rejection. Jesus knew that His Father had a “divine timetable,” plan and purpose for Him. Hence, His focus was on the assurance that nothing could harm Him while He was doing the will of God according to the Father’s plans. Not even Herod could hinder the purposes of God. In fact our Lord’s enemies only helped fulfill the will of God. Do we focus on our assurance and promises and know that those who come against us will not prevail in the big picture?

Jesus’ response to rejection was that He faced with amazement rather than fear. He did not deny His rejection experiences or try to prove Himself by performing miracles. He simply acknowledged the rejection with a note of amazement. Then, He directed His focus onward, picked up where He left off and went about fulfilling His purpose.

Jesus knew that He faced crucifixion as a part of God’s plan. His focus remained on His purpose not His experience or pain. His purpose was to take our place as the Passover lamb and cleanse us from sin. Jesus was not moved by emotion or fear, and not corrupted by the rejection He experienced. He did not respond with anger, discouragement, or a negative perspective with altered choices. He expressed a sob of anguish, because His tender heart even in the midst of pain felt compassion. He chose not to harden His heart through rejection and the obstacles that He faced and we can do likewise by following His example.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2-3 NIV

Jesus went through the pain emotionally, physically, relationally and spiritually. He did not allow those who sought to shame Him to succeed because He kept His eyes on the prize. He knew that the affliction He suffered would produce an explosive increase in the kingdom of God.

Jesus died on the cross to restore our relationship with God. Rejection from the church is contrary to God’s character because it condemns and dismisses us from relationship. The very relationship Jesus died to make a bridge for us to experience with God and His true body. Those who have experienced rejection by the church body, and especially from leaders, may struggle with their view of God and His intentions because of those who have falsely represented Him.

God has sought to know His creation since the beginning of time. From Genesis to Revelation, we see a miracle working God revealing Himself to His creation, yet mankind has continued to reject Him. God is well acquainted with the emotion of rejection and understands what we feel. Jesus experienced seven wounds of rejection on the cross: they were abandonment, betrayal, false accusation, rejection, abuse, embarrassment, and labeling. These were not done by enemies but by His own people, primarily the Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes, and elders all leaders in God’s house.

“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11 NKJV

God put Himself in a human body and experienced the pain of rejection in the person of Jesus Christ. He felt the pain of rejection from the world, His family, and most of all from the church, or all the religious leaders of His day. Jesus was rejected by His own, and likewise we too have experienced rejection by our own. It happened to Jesus and so we know it will happen to us as well. He forewarned us:

“These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.” John 16:1-3 NKJV

Just like Jesus we will experience rejection by the world, our community, friends, peers, our nation, family and even the body of Christ. We may be rejected for our flaws, weaknesses, and failures or we may be rejected because we reflect His character, and purpose. Maybe we are rejected because we operate in giftings with skill and success that scream a message someone does not want to hear.

“He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” Luke 10:16 NKJV

Jesus had no flaws, failures, or weaknesses. He was rejected for truth, righteousness, strength, love and integrity. The religious leaders did not want to hear or believe what the prophets or Jesus said because then a response and change in their lives would be required. Nothing has changed; this is still happening. We may be a message or a floodlight on someone who needs to hear what God is saying to them. If we are rejected, remember there is a long line of righteous people before us who experienced the same thing.

Jesus shows us His life skills in the midst of rejection and boldly confronts the religious leaders. He did not mince words in many interactions that we read. When He spoke the parable of the landowner and his vineyard, He had a loud and clear message for the Pharisees. He was explaining the ultimate rejection from the tenants or religious leaders. The landowner represents God, who owns the vineyard of Israel, which was called to bear fruit of worship and obedience to the Lord. God sent His servants, the Prophets, but they rebelled, rejected their Words from God, and killed them. Finally, they killed the landowners Son, Jesus Himself.

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. ‘When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” Matthew 21:33-46 NIV

Jesus defines God’s experience with rejection from the Old to the New Testament in this scripture. The Pharisees continued in a long history of rejection instead of repentance. The entire Bible describes the hatred, affliction and persecution that follow God’s people in a hostile world. Jesus taught us that the prophets faced persecution so His disciples should expect the same. The first martyr Stephen tells us of persecution in the past as He stands before his accusers.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.” Acts 7:51-53 NKJV

The prophets, the voice of God, were rejected. They killed those who foretold the Messiah. When the Messiah arrived, they betrayed and murdered Him and would not obey what God presented. If this happened to other believers, surely we as well will experience rejection and persecution. In the Matthew 10, Jesus tells us to expect persecution repeatedly. Remember persecution is rejection.

“When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Matthew 10:23 NKJV

Jesus Himself, the founding fathers, the prophets, and the disciples all experienced rejection. When we operate in our purpose as a disciple of Christ, we like the apostles, will experience rejection. The apostles were beaten and still did not remain silent. They did not allow rejection to change them in their purpose.

“And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” Acts 5:40-42 NKJV

What was the response of the apostles? They did not cease from teaching and preaching the message of Jesus Christ. They did not compromise God or their principles and callings to please people. They did not allow rejection to sway them from their plan, identity, and purpose. We must do likewise.

Dr. Michele

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Michele Fleming, Ph.D.