Rejection is hard to take, especially when it comes from those who are closest to us – our neighbours, friends or family. Even Jesus, although many were impressed with his knowledge and miracles, faced rejection from those in leadership at the synagogue.
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself!' And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"
"Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Luke 4: 22-30 [NIV]
Do you find that you aren't valued by those closest to you? We can't please all the people all the time – and we are not called to popularity, rather we are to do what we can when the situations present themselves to us. Even Jesus didn't heal everyone who came to him.
Lord, help us to be encouraged to do what we can – not discouraged that we can't do everything. Help us to know your love and acceptance even if we are rejected by friends, neighbours or family. In Jesus name, Amen.
Dave MacLellan
Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 36:1-12, Numbers 14:1-15:21, Luke 4:14-37
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