The Rejection of Jesus

Ministry is tough…even for Jesus.

(For context, you may wish to read Luke 4.14-30.)

This past summer, I taught a class on conversational evangelism. Whenever I teach this course, I ask participants, “Why are you interested in evangelism?” I will never forget what one guy, Chuck, told me. He said, “I want to learn how to talk about Jesus without offending the other person.” Bad news for Chuck. Jesus is offensive.

Last Sunday and this Sunday, the lectionary spends two days going over Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth. It appears that from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, people were offended by Him and His message. Unfortunately, we will not hear the story’s conclusion because of the institution this coming Sunday. Therefore, I thought we could spend some time on it in this week’s edition of The Compass.

Luke 4 is a peculiar way to start the story of Jesus’ public ministry. If you and I were first-century Christians trying to bring more people into Christianity by sharing Jesus’ story, then we would not want that story to start with a part about rejection by His own people. While humility is a modern virtue, this was not so in Jesus’ time. This story would have been a source of embarrassment in both Biblical Jewish and Gentile cultures. Yet, this is precisely how Luke begins Jesus’ story. In fact, Matthew and Mark also include this story in their accounts. This raises two related questions. First, why did the gospel writers include this humiliating part when they could have left them out of the story? Second, what does this teach us?

Let’s start with the first question. There are two answers to this question. First, Jesus’ rejection is actually one piece of evidence of the validity of the Bible’s accuracy. We know that other religions of this time often changed the story of their founder’s history. However, the Bible is unapologetically honest and does not attempt to cover up any shameful parts. Therefore, it is included because it is the truth about Jesus’ story.

There is also a second reason why this is included. In the passage, Jesus points out that this is not the first time God’s people rejected His messengers. Two specific examples He names are the stories of Elijah and Elisha. This was Jesus’ way of pointing out that God’s people were repeating history. That is, God was once again at work to bring about His plan of redemption. This was good news! The people, however, were following their ancestor’s pattern of rejecting that plan. We can just hear Jesus say, “Some things never change.” The implied warning was that if they did not get on board with God’s plan, they were going to get left behind like Israel of the past.

Jesus’ message was intended to be good news for the people, yet the people rejected Jesus and His gospel. This leads to our second question. Luke 4 shows us that a hearer will not always receive the good news of Jesus as good news. If Jesus could not win over everyone with His message of hope, redemption, and reconciliation, we should not be surprised when we are rejected for sharing that same message.  Challenge and rejection are not signs we have failed God or failed at sharing the gospel. Instead, they can serve as an indication that we truly are sharing the good news of Jesus.

Jesus charges all His followers to share His good news. Unfortunately, not everyone will hear it as good news. I hope this story inspires us not to give up on our call but instead follow in our leader’s footsteps.

Fr. Chase