Rejected!

This sermon was preached on 1/31/10 at Our Savior for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany. The sermon text is Luke 4:20-32.

Rejected!

The fear of rejection drives a lot of action and inaction in our world today. Nobody wants to be rejected.  Nobody wants to have their feelings or something they want or something they have done thrown back into their face. But that's what rejection feels like.  It makes you feel like you're not good enough, like you can't do anything right, like you're worth nothing more than the garbage that gets thrown away.

We probably all have painful memories of rejection in our own lives. Maybe it was that assignment that you worked so hard on in school -- that took so much of your time and energy -- but ended up getting a bad grade anyway. Rejected. Maybe it was a job interview or the chance to get a promotion at work. You thought you were qualified. You thought you were a shoe in. But they went with someone else. Sorry. Rejected. Maybe it was someone you loved, someone you thought loved you or used to love you. But now for whatever reason  that love is not being returned. And it hurts. Rejected.

Yes, it hurts a lot. Of all the things that cause us physical pain in our lives, could they really hurt worse than the emotional pain of rejection? That's probably why people would do anything (or not do anything) to prevent rejection from happening. So many people want others to like them at all costs to avoid rejection. Parents get afraid of the rejection of their kids, so they spoil them with whatever they want and refuse to discipline them. True feelings are often never revealed for fear of the rejection those feelings might bring. Chances for a new job or a new promotion are often never taken, just so there's no chance of rejection. Yes, most people avoid rejection at all costs.

And that makes the profound rejection Jesus received in our text all the more shocking. We talked about the setting last week. This was Nazareth, Jesus' hometown. He grew up here. People knew him. He was the local boy who was starting to get more and more famous. He had gathered some disciples. He had been teaching and performing miracles all around the area. And now he'd made it to his hometown synagogue. What could possibly go wrong?

When we look at the events from Luke's gospel, we see everything started well enough. His sermon started strong. "He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk. 4:21) Here he was, the Savior of the world, the true Word of God himself reading the Word of God to the people -- and fulfilling it! Incredible!

And, at first, the people were eating it up. "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." (Lk. 4:22) As Jesus was speaking, you can just picture the crowd whispering to each other, "Listen to him! He's fantastic! And he grew up right here in Nazareth! Wasn't his dad Joseph a carpenter, and didn't he work as one, too? Where'd he learn to do this kind of teaching?" It was the excitement of meeting a real, live celebrity, and realizing that the celebrity came from your own town. Jesus had put Nazareth on the map, and now he's here! Isn't it great!

But then Jesus started saying things that didn't sit right with the crowd. "Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'" (Lk. 4:23) Hmm. What was Jesus saying here? The people of Nazareth had heard of Jesus' teaching, and they'd heard that he was also able to do some miracles and healings. His home base during his ministry in Galilee was the city of Capernaum. He had done great healings and amazing things there. So, the people thought, just think what a neat show he'd put on for us, here in his hometown!

But his words were telling them that they were going to be disappointed. He would not be doing the kind of healings that he did in Capernaum. He knew he wouldn't be doing them because he knew the people were going to reject him.

And he tells them so. "I tell you the truth," 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." (Lk. 4:24-26)

Jesus was talking about the story we heard in our first lesson today. (1 Ki. 17:7-16) Elijah had gone to a widow in Zarephath and kept her and her son alive through a miracle of food that didn't run out. But Jesus calls attention not so much to the miracle as to the fact that Elijah didn't go to Israel to help a widow; he went to a foreigner. And why did he go there? Because the people of Israel had rejected the true God. So the true God rejected them. He sent a famine on their land -- and not just a famine of food, but a famine of hearing God's Word. (Amos 8:11)

They had rejected God, so God rejected them and sent his prophet to help a foreigner. The same thing happened in the time of Elisha. Jesus said, "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." (Lk. 4:27) The people of Israel were notoriously evil at this time, rejecting the true God for serving the false god Baal. So God rejected them and sent Elisha to heal a foreign general.

What Jesus was saying was clear: the people of Nazareth were going to reject him. They weren't going to listen and treat him as true God. He was more like a circus sideshow to them -- someone to gawk at and maybe entertain them with a trick or two. But God? Savior? Redeemer? No way. This was the carpenter's son -- no more, no less. So Jesus was telling them, 'When you reject me  -- which you will -- I will go to people who will appreciate me more."

And what do you know? Jesus was right. Everyone hated what he was saying now. "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 down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way." (Lk. 4:28-30) Their hatred of Jesus was so strong, their rejection of him so complete, that they wanted him dead. But it wasn't Jesus' time to die just yet.

Dear friends, there's a lesson here for us. Here the people of Nazareth had Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior himself, right there! He taught them God's Word! But instead of taking his Word to heart, instead of accepting it in faith, they rejected him. They rejected him completely.

And we think, "I would've never done that. I wouldn't have rejected Jesus to his face and tried to kill him." That's good! I hope you wouldn't have. But still. Still as we look at the crowd in the Nazareth synagogue, we're reminded that Satan might not get us to stand and reject Jesus to his face anytime soon, but he has other tricks up his sleeve.

Yes, in our world of today we're much more tempted to reject Jesus passively, in a much more subtle way than the people in Nazareth did.  Have you ever rejected Jesus? Don't say "no" too quickly. You reject him when your sins are something you laugh at and laugh off. You reject him when the idea of carefully following all of his teaching seems like pointless nitpicking. You reject him when studying his Word sounds like drudgery, when listening to his Word seems so unappealing. You reject him when he and his Word have dropped to anywhere on the list of your heart other than number one.

You're not the only one who has ever rejected him that way, of course. Many see Jesus and reject him with a shrug of the shoulder. He's just not interesting enough. Not exciting enough to motivate me to get out of bed on a Sunday morning or to blow the dust off of the family Bible. So, while Jesus is still there in his Word, while his message is just as powerful now, while he still longs to take all to heaven through his life and death, many people are still yawning their way to hell.

Watch out! Don't let it happen to you! Don't get that "it would never happen to me" kind of idea. The people in Nazareth didn't think it could happen to them either, but then they tried to push Jesus off a cliff. We don't think we'd ever reject Jesus, but the time is coming when it looks like more and more in our country already have. And rejecting Jesus eventually leads to him rejecting you forever.

Watch out! Don't let it happen to you! Take an honest look at your life, look at the times you have rejected him, and repent. Ask him for forgiveness and mercy, because he is happy to give it! In fact he guaranteed our forgiveness and mercy through everything he has done for us.  Jesus' perfect life means that God our Father has rejected our sins and now sees us as holy by faith.  Jesus' suffering and death means that God our Father has rejected the punishment of hell for us, because Jesus paid it in our place. Jesus' rising from the tomb on the first Easter means that God our Father has rejected death for us forever and instead by faith gives us eternal life in heaven. He rejects our sins and accepts us as his holy children!

There could be no more amazing message than that! It's the message we need to hear constantly. We need to know about our forgiveness, about God's love for us, not just once, but all the time. Think of how much we hate rejection and the things people will do to avoid rejection. How great is it then when we have been guaranteed the opposite of rejection from God because of Jesus! We should be running to his Word to hear and see what he has done for us again and again!

We want to treat Jesus less like they did in Nazareth and more like they did in Capernaum. Our text ends by telling us, "He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority." (Lk. 4:31-32).

His teaching still has that authority for us. So listen to him. Reject every temptation to brush  Jesus off or yawn him out of your life. Instead, look to how Jesus was rejected by a sinful world so that he could win us a perfect eternity. Look at how God rejected our punishment but gives us all his good gifts by faith. Look at how God didn't reject us in our sins, but sent his Word into our hearts. Reject your fears, your sins, your doubts, and cling to the cross. There sin, death, and hell were rejected forever. There Satan himself was rejected. There your hope is found. There God's love flows for you. There you've found a Savior's arms outstretched to accept you in love forever. Listen to him! Trust him!