Reflections on Rejection: Matthew 11

In light of this being the day before Good Friday there is somber reflection today in my heart on the 24 hours prior to my Lord’s death on a cross. During that time Jesus saw his disciples turn their backs on him, he had heard one of his closest friends deny him to the point of cursing his name, and he had felt the physical pain of being beaten as an imposter. How’s your day going? We should not soon forget that Jesus took on this for us: “What a love; what a cost – We stand
forgiven at the cross.”

Not for Himself, but first in faithfulness to His Father’s plan and second in love for those who would find in Him their all. Saints of old had looked in faith to this day, and many since then and in the future will trust Him and His sacrifice for sin for  their own redemption; being granted favor and standing before God as His children.

In my reading today in Matthew 11 Jesus deals with the issue of rejection. If you have been there recently you know all too well, it hurts. It cuts like a knife. It is emotional. It rips your heart out only to realize life goes on and its pace doesn’t slow down while God replants the heart in its rightful place. And through the ripping and the replanting, God works on our behalf: recreating, reshaping, and transforming. A yet Jesus was rejected too, could it be that this is why He works so amazingly through rejection in our own lives.

For Jesus, we see him providing an answer to an imprisoned John the Baptist. John’s message has been rejected and now he is questioning if Jesus was the one they were waiting for. Jesus responds by sending reminders of His power. Then Jesus turns and speaks to the larger crowd and talks about the people’s general rejection of John and Himself. Matthew 11:18-19:

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.

Jesus words remind us that the sincere worshipper’s heart looks past formalities of outward expressions to find truth and deliverance. Those who were seeking to be part of a fan club, a country club, or political revolution ended up rejecting Jesus  ultimately because He offered them far more than they were willing to accept they needed.

The “healthy” rejected eternal health, the “wealthy” eternal riches, the poor and homeless an eternal home, the lonely an eternal friend, and the “righteous” rejected true righteousness for contrived righteousness. How sad for those whose choice to reject, ended up haunting  their eternity. To reverse the amazing lines of The Power of the Cross: “What a loss; what a cost – to stand unforgiven with back turned to the cross.”

It was at that cross that all those who have faced rejection find solace, hope, love, and redemption.