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Learning To Deal With
Rejection
It is
natural to want to be loved and accepted. We like
acceptance. It is lovely to be loved. Rejection
is unpleasant. We don’t like rejection.
One might
think that if anyone would be loved and accepted,
it would be the perfect Son of God, who always
did what was right, who never did anything wrong.
Messiah was loved and accepted by His God and
Father. He stated this when He spoke: This is
My beloved Son. I am very pleased with Him.
But, even
though Immanuel was sent by God to be welcomed,
loved, accepted by the specially prepared people,
Messiah was rejected by the majority - especially
those who knew the most about our religion, and
were the best trained in the Judaism of that day.
We don’t
like rejection. We want to be accepted. Our unwillingness
to endure rejection is one of the main reasons
we are not more faithful servants of God. Like
Yeshua, if we are to truly please God, we will
be misunderstood, opposed, and rejected. Let’s
see how Yeshua responded to rejection, and what
we can learn from Him that will help us deal with
rejection.
Yeshua
had just been opposed by those who accused Him
of being a false prophet who got His power from
Beelzebub - the demonic lord of the flies. He
had been rejected by others who demanded that
He prove He was a true prophet of God by doing
a great public miracle. They were testing Him,
trying to make Him look bad and fail.
These
members of the Chosen People were in very serious
trouble, because Someone far far greater than
Jonah was with us! Someone much greater and wiser
than Solomon was among us, and yet we refused
to see it and welcome the King Immanuel!
Messiah
knew that if we persisted in our rejection, disaster
and judgment would surely come. Thank God for
such a bold and courageous Messiah, such a wise
leader who understood so much, and could tell
us where we were wrong; correct us where we needed
correction; teach us the truth, graciously telling
us what to do to prevent disaster from coming!
Next Luke
introduces us to a member of the Pharisees, who
were the forerunners of today’s orthodox Judaism.
This Pharisee, and others from his group, were
so close to God and the Bible, and yet so far!
They too had serious errors that not properly
dealt with, would lead them to spiritual disaster.
Now
when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have
lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at
the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised
that He had not first ceremonially washed before
the meal.
This Pharisee
was a member of the Chosen People. He was schooled
in Bible and the Judaism of his day. In the presence
of this Pharisee was the long-awaited Messiah,
the Seed of the Woman, the focus of the entire
Bible, and the plan of God, and all of the Messianic
prophecies! In his home, seated at his table was
the Son of David, the King Messiah, greatest Rabbi
who ever lived!
What was
this forerunner of today’s orthodox Jews concerned
about? What became the initial focus of the conversation?
Great matters of Torah and prophecy? Was Yeshua
the Messiah? Some of Messiah’s profound teachings?
How to inherit eternal life? No, something that
is not even mentioned in the Torah, something
that God never commanded us to do - a man-made
teaching about washing before eating!
Knowing
the truth, how would you have responded to this
Pharisee’s concern about ceremonial washing before
eating? Would you have agreed with him and washed
for the sake of keeping peace? After all, a little
washing wouldn’t really hurt anyone, right? You
were in his house, and should follow his customs,
right? Would you have compromised and tried to
find some middle ground? Let’s see how Rabbi Messiah
responded.
But
the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter;
but inside of you, you are full of robbery and
wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made
the outside make the inside also?
One of
the problems with the faith of the Pharisees was
an over-emphasis on the external things of religion.
All too often they were more engaged in religious
form than with spiritual substance. They looked
good on the outside, while tolerating sin on the
inside. While they may have been religiously pleasing
to man, who is only able to see the outside, they
were not always pleasing to God, who sees us on
the inside.
One area
in particular that was wrong: their interpretation
of Scripture allowed them, in their pursuit of
material gain, to take advantage of people - similar
to many of the corrupt prosperity teachers of
today.
It’s not
that God is not concerned about the external forms
of religion, and things like cleanliness. But
even more important to Him is moral and spiritual
cleanliness and true religion at the core of who
we are; genuine knowledge of God and His Word;
genuine love for God and man. But it was this
inner godliness that so many of the Pharisees
were lacking - and Messiah knew it. The light
that they thought they had was really darkness.
But like an astute spiritual doctor, Rabbi Yeshua
was able to diagnose the situation. He was able
to peer into the darkness of our hearts, understand
what was wrong, and graciously give the proper
spiritual medicine.
But
give that which is within as charity, and then
all things are clean for you. Righteous men
and women must be givers, not takers, helpers
of humanity, not harmers of humanity. It is part
of the very nature of love to give, to help, to
bless - not to take, not to take advantage of.
If it is more blessed to give than to receive,
it is far more blessed to give than to unrighteously
take. The Son of God knew that Pharisees who were
tolerating coveting, needed the antidote of generosity,
of giving to others, of tzadakah and charity that
comes from a transformed heart that really loves
God.
How did
Yeshua respond to these wrong emphases, these
wrong priorities among religious people? Turning
a blind eye so as not to provoke them? Not saying
anything in order to get along with them? No.
He cared enough to confront them, to correct them,
to warn them. He knew that the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful, but the wounds of a friend are
faithful.
These
religious men needed correction - strong, forthright
correction. Religious people who are ensnared
by false teaching usually need strong words to
help them break free of the error that is destroying
them, and that is what Yeshua graciously and mercifully
gave them.
But
woe (trouble is coming, bad things are going
to happen, pain and suffering and loss are on
the way) to you Pharisees! Why? Again,
their religion was emphasizing form over substance,
the externals of religion more than genuine spirituality
that comes from within. For you pay tithe of
mint and rue and every kind of garden herb
(the Torah does command Israel to give ten percent
of our crops to the priests, but the idea behind
the law was the main crops like the barley and
the wheat. The Pharisees were supposedly so concerned
about keeping each command they wanted to give
ten percent even of the very minor things that
grew like herbs).
For
you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of
garden herb and yet disregard justice and
the love of God; but these are the things you
should have done without neglecting the others.
The essence
of true religion is loving God and loving other
human beings.
To love
other human beings, we must treat them fairly.
We must help them. We must do what is good and
right for them.
To love
God the way we need to, our religion must not
focus on the mere externals of religion. We need
to have a close and intimate and personal relationship
with God.
To love
God the way we need to, He must be our highest
priority. He must come first. We must love Him
with the totality of our being, and with all of
our resources. There must be total commitment
to the Creator, devotion, adoration, priority
in love and affection for Him, consuming zeal
for God above all other things.
To love
God the way we need to, we must humble ourselves
before Him. We must end our self-will, and yield
to His will. We must break off our rebellion against
Him, and submit ourselves to Him, and allow God
to teach us in the ways we are to go.
To love
God the way we need to, we must love the Messiah
that the Father loves and approves of and sent
into this world to be mankind’s only Savior.
Not only
did many of the Pharisees focus on the external
aspects of religion, and miss the substance of
true religion - loving God and man, but they also
wanted the approval of other human beings. They
were motivated by the desire to receive the praise
of man - and that is a serious flaw in someone
who wants to please God in a godless world.
Woe
(trouble is coming, bad things are going to
happen, pain and suffering and loss are on the
way) to you Pharisees! For you love the chief
seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings
in the market places.
In a world
that is demonically controlled, the praise of
men should not motivate us. Receiving praise from
God should! Truly pleasing Him, putting Him first,
doing His will, no matter what others may think
of us. We should be motivated by the knowledge
that one day we may hear the words: You served
Me well! You honored Me in difficult circumstances.
Job well done. You are to be greatly and eternally
rewarded!
Yeshua
had more hard words for them. Hard words, but
also necessary words, true words, gracious words.
Woe
(trouble is coming, bad things are going to
happen, pain and suffering and loss are on the
way) to you! For you are like concealed tombs,
and the people who walk over them are unaware
of it." According to the Torah, anyone
who was in an open field and touched a grave was
unclean for seven days. He couldn’t worship at
the Temple and get close to God until he went
through the proper cleansing procedures.
The error
in the faith and practice of the Pharisees made
them unclean, and a spiritual danger to anyone
who had contact with them. They seemed so religious,
so godly, so Jewish, so observant, but the truth
was that they were leading our people farther
away from God, not closer! And, their successors,
the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Chassidic
Jews still are!
Not only
was this Pharisee present, hearing these strong,
confrontational but true words, but an expert
in Torah was likewise present. He may not have
been a member of the Pharisees, but religiously
he was very close to them. One of the experts
in Torah said to Him in reply, "Rabbi, when
You say this, You insult us too."
And we
never want to insult or offend anybody, right?
Tolerance, and getting along, even if it means
not boldly declaring the truth, and compromising
a little, is better, right? Wrong! It is better
to offend, if by offending we speak the truth
in love and give people the correction they need.
But
Yeshua said, "Woe (trouble is coming,
bad things are going to happen, pain and suffering
and loss are on the way) to you Torah experts
as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard
to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch
the burdens with one of your fingers.
They demanded
from the Jewish people strict adherence to Torah
observance, but tried to come up with ways around
the Laws when it came to themselves. The King
who will rule with complete justice accused them
of being easy on themselves, not applying the
laws evenly and fairly, being inconsistent and
hypocritical.
Woe
to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets,
and it was your fathers who killed them. So you
are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers;
because it was they who killed them, and you build
their tombs.
The experts
in the Torah were being just like their ancestors
who killed the prophets. When the majority of
Israel went astray from God and His teachings,
the Lord would send us a prophet to confront us
and point out our areas of inconsistency, and
call us to turn back to God and His ways. Most
of the prophets were rejected and killed.
Yeshua
told them they were making the very same mistakes.
Building nice beautiful tombs for the prophets
only emphasized Israel’s repeated failures, and
they were doing the very same things - even worse,
because He was no ordinary prophet! He was the
eternal Son of God sent into this world to save
us, and the only Savior. To reject Him and to
kill Him could only bring the greatest woes, judgments,
punishments and disasters on our nation.
And Yeshua
knew that was exactly what would happen! The prophet
Yeshua predicted that not only would the majority
of Israel reject Him, but they would also reject
other New Covenant prophets and the specially
chosen emissaries that the Father and the Son
would send to Israel.
For
this reason also the wisdom of God said (in
other words, God has wisely spoken): 'I will
send to them prophets and apostles, and some of
them they will kill and some they will persecute,
so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since
the foundation of the world, may be charged against
this generation, from the blood of Abel to the
blood of Zechariah (from Genesis to 2 Chronicles,
in other words, all of the good men who spoke
for God in the entire Bible, from beginning to
end), who was killed between the altar and
the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be
charged against this generation.'
Israel
had been punished before for rejecting and mistreating
the prophets God sent to correct us. Yeshua was
greater than all of the prophets put together!
And, not only would Messiah be rejected, but His
key men - the apostles, and other New Covenant
prophets who spoke the truth and did miracles,
verifying that God and Messiah sent them, would
be rejected and killed.
Even after
the majority killed the Messiah, God graciously
gave Israel 40 years of opportunities to recognize
our mistakes. Great men of God who were mighty
apostles and prophets spoke to Israel.
But the
majority would not listen. The majority persecuted
the apostles and New Covenant prophets.
There
would result in a culmination of sin, a culmination
of rejection of God, a culmination of judgment.
In 70
AD, a terrible, devastating judgment came. Jerusalem
and the Temple were destroyed, hundreds of thousands
were killed, tens of thousands sold into slavery,
the people were scattered among the nations, there
to suffer for almost 2,000 years. It is a judgment
that we have yet to fully recover from.
Every
generation since that time has been an evil generation
and we are still an evil generation. Every generation
has been an Messiah rejecting, God-dishonoring,
Torah-corrupting generation, which thinks it is
pleasing to God and is not.
Yeshua
continued to accurately diagnose the situation,
speak the truth that could bring correction.
Woe
(trouble is coming, bad things are going to
happen, pain and suffering and loss are on the
way) to you experts in Torah! For you have
taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves
did not enter, and you hindered those who were
entering."
These
experts in the Torah thought they know more about
God, more about Bible, more about how to interpret
the Bible than anyone else on Earth. They thought
they knew so much - but they didn’t. They had
much information, but they were missing the key
that would unlock the door to salvation.
What is
the key? Genuine love of God and man that is built
on the understanding that the Messiah has come!
Do you have that key? Have you used it to open
the door to the kingdom of God?
How do
we respond to rejection? The same way Yeshua did.
Speak the truth, educate, inform, clarify, reason,
point out the error, warn of the consequences
of continued rejection. Be bold. Don’t compromise!
Don’t back down, don’t cave in, don’t tone down,
don’t wimp out!
Will we
be rejected? Yes. Expect rejection - as happened
to Yeshua. When He left there, the Torah teachers
and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and
to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting
against Him to catch Him in something He might
say.
Yeshua
was rejected, but He outsmarted them all, and
we can too! Yeshua was rejected, but He was victorious
over them all, and we will be too! Yeshua did
not die a day too early - nor will we!
Expect
rejection by an anti-God, anti-Messiah world.
Rejection means that you are probably doing the
right things!
Remember
- Yeshua was rejected by men, but ultimately vindicated
and honored and elevated and rewarded - as will
we be - if we courageously endure rejection!
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