Rejected again?

Do you ever feel rejected? Less than the crowd in the area you're working, serving, living?

Don't feel alone, or as you are the only one who ever felt that way. You are not. In fact, you're in incredibly wonderful company.

Try this scripture on for size (from John 10): "So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."

Jesus, rejected, alone. Alone in the Garden. Alone on the cross. Alone and rejected.

And that rejection was intentional, was accepted, was needed. Why? For us.

In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), Jesus started to teach, then returned to Nazareth -- the town in which he grew up. On the sabbath, he went to a synagogue and began to teach. During that time, he claimed he was a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah. Well, to the folks who watched Jesus grow up, this was gas to a flame. They questioned, they criticised and they REJECTED him.

In the 11th chapter of John's Gospel, we read, "Even though he had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him..."

Look, rejection is painful. Rejection is hard. No one wants to be rejected.

Author and priest Henry Nouwen said it this way: "Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”