The Rejected Christ
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-30
Meditation
There’s nothing better than coming home. Unless, of course, those who are at home don’t welcome you back!
After his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus had left his hometown of Nazareth and had gone to live in Capernaum on the north end of the Sea of Galilee. There, he began his ministry. During that time, he taught in their synagogues, he healed the sick, and he performed miracles. News about him spread rapidly throughout the whole countryside and everyone praised him.
Except those in Nazareth.
When Jesus came home to Nazareth, he went to the Synagogue, as was his custom. The attendant handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus unrolled it until he found the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61:1-2. He paused for a moment and then he began to read.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
After reading from the scroll, he rolled it back up, gave it to the attendant, sat down, and began to teach, saying,
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus wants everyone who knows him—his friends and family, his neighbors, the one-time carpentry clients of his father’s business—to know that the Messianic prophecies of the past are now being fulfilled in their presence.
Right then, right there, right before their eyes, Isaiah’s Messianic words have human flesh on them. Something good and glorious can and has come out of Nazareth. But Jesus is too familiar to them to be the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy.
“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
The ones that Jesus cares about most—members of his family, his childhood friends, those he went to worship with, those he worked with and played with—are the ones that he wants, more than any other, to receive his message.
But the ones who know him don’t want him.
They don’t just reject his message; they reject him. By means of a proverb and references to Elijah’s and Elisha’s ministry to the Gentiles (and not to the house of Israel), Jesus rebukes his hometown for its unbelief. It’s at this point that his homecoming turns into a lynching.
“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.”
A mob drives Jesus out of town. Along the way they yell,
“Kill him! Throw him down the cliff!”
But as they try to throw him off the hill, he—unhindered—turns away from the edge, steps forward, and then walks right through the crowd.
How he does it is a mystery. That he does it is a fact.
His time has not yet come. Only the Father will determine the time, the place, and the method of his death. For Jesus knows that there will be another hill, with another mob, that will be shouting another set of death chants,
“Crucify him! Crucify him!”
But on that hill they will not throw him down. Instead, he will allow them to raise him up. And when he is raised up, the Rejected Christ will say to the world,
“Though you reject me, I will not reject you.”
Again, he would fulfill Isaiah’s words.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)
Prayer
Father,
After your Son began his ministry in Galilee, he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. He wanted to let his family, friends, and neighbors know that the Messianic prophecies of the past were being fulfilled in the present— right then, right there, right in their own backyard.
He was the one who was sent to preach the good news, heal the sick, and release the oppressed. But the ones who knew him the best treated him the worst. His neighbors treated him as an outsider. His friends became enemies and the ones who had once played with him on the brow of the village hill tried to throw him off of it.
During this day, prepare me to receive the Rejected Christ.
May my familiarity with him not cause contempt, or disdain, or defiance. Today, open my heart to receive all that this Messiah would want to give. And if I am rejected in any way because of him, may the Rejected Christ open his arms and receive me.
It’s in his name I pray. Amen.
Reflection
What’s the difference between having a knowledge of Christ and believing in Christ?
What does it feel like to be rejected? Rejected by the world you live in? Rejected by the family and friends you live with?
In what ways have you rejected Christ?
How has the Rejected Christ accepted you?
Scripture references in the meditation are marked by italics and are taken from the Gospel reading for the day (Luke 4:14-30). Those verses quoted outside of the chosen reading for the day are noted in parenthesis. All Scripture quoted on this site is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
