John 1:9-11 NIV
[9] The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. [10] He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. [11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Rejection is far from a nice emotion.
I remember how it felt when I was a boy – I think I was around ten years old – when the manager of my football (soccer) team came round to my house, met with my parents and I, and told us that I would not make it as a footballer and that I had been cut from the team.
I cried myself to sleep that night.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. I wasn’t very good. I wasn’t very fit. I had started one game in the years I was on their roster and had been substituted at half time.
In a sense, it also helped me. My manager and his coaches had a habit of smoking cigars and cigarettes in the dressing room while we were getting changed. Not long after leaving the team, my asthma began to clear.
A few years later, he was also arrested, suspected of serious charges relating to what he did with those boys.
Maybe I got out in time. Maybe my rejection was no bad thing.
But, of course, it still hurt. Because rejection always does.
It might sound like a tough thing to say, but facing rejection in your youth can be a good thing. It toughens you up to face it when you are an adult. Being cut from the cast of school plays or sports teams prepares you for facing job rejections, rejections from potential partners, rejections from colleges or universities, rejections from publishers or potential clients.
We all face it sooner or later.
If you feel the bitter sting of rejection now, I want you to know one precious truth: you are in good company.
Jesus was rejected.
And not just at the cross.
The rejection began in earnest when He was a toddler.
That might sound quite a shocking thing to say, but consider the dreadful events around the Massacre of the Innocents, recorded in Matthew 2:1-18. What is striking here to me is that Herod is an extraordinarily capricious ruler – and not a Jew. He calls into his presence the Chief Priests and the teachers of the law, with the demand that they tell him where the Messiah was to be born. It was common belief in those days that the Messiah would overthrow the Romans, who had placed Herod on the throne, and rule over Israel.
So what did they think Herod was going to do with that information: throw a baby shower?
A welcome party?
They must have known – they had to have known – how Herod would use that information.
In other words, their very actions in betraying the location where the Messiah was to be born was the first act in the Gospels of a long chain of rejections of the idea that a Messiah would come, and later that Jesus was the Messiah.
What happened then was bad enough. But John tells us more about this pattern of rejection that leaves us in no doubt that rejecting Jesus Christ is an utterly heinous act.
The first thing it says about Jesus Christ is that He came for all:
John 1:9 NIV
[9] The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Jesus came to give light to everyone, to give everyone the opportunity to be saved. We read this in 1 Timothy:
1 Timothy 2:3-6 NIV
[3] This is good, and pleases God our Savior, [4] who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. [5] For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
So Jesus comes as the light for all, but everyone then has to decide what they do with that light; He wants all to be saved, but they have to decide if they want to be saved; He came as a ransom, but they have to decide if they want to go free.
Do you see it?
Christmas is not just for Christians. It is for everyone.
Easter is not just for Christians. It is for everyone.
The universality of the call of the Gospel is made even clearer when we see the people who answered the call:
Galatians 3:27-28 NIV
[27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11 NIV
[11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Because of what Jesus Christ came to do on the cross, there is nothing that can stop any of us from coming to Christ and being saved.
Except ourselves.
As well as coming for all, we also see something else: He made all.
John 1:10 NIV
[10] He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
John has already taught that Jesus is God, and therefore Jesus created the world.
Paul agrees:
Colossians 1:15-17 NIV
[15] The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [16] For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. [17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
That is a wonderful thing.
Every one of us is not a random collection of cells, but a hand-crafted individual, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We were all made by God even when we were hidden from the view of our parents:
Psalms 139:13-16 NIV
[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. [15] My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. [16] Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Who was it who did this?
Jesus.
Because Jesus is God.
And yet the tragic truth is that the world Jesus created didn’t understand Him or perceive Him for who He was.
It’s as if an author stepped into the story she created and was pushed out of it, or if a painter entered his own painting and his own brushstrokes sought to erase him.
There is nothing sadder than that.
The truth is that Jesus is the one who came for all and created all, but also He Was Rejected by Many.
Yet this rejection is not just a New Testament phenomenon. It actually began way back at Creation, when Adam and Eve spurned a relationship with God over the short-term gain of consuming the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-21).
It continued in the desert, as important factions within the people of God – even at one point Moses’ own brother and sister – continually rebelled against God’s will for them. The worst of these rebellions was at the foot of Mount Sinai, when they exchanged their God for an idol (Exodus 32).
It continued through the time of the Judges, when God’s people were only interested in having a relationship with God when He ran to their rescue and saved them from their enemies.
It continued through the time of the Jewish Monarchy, when king after king after king rejected God and turned aside to worship idols.
It expressed itself ultimately in their rejection of God as the time of the Exiles drew close:
Amos 5:25-27 NIV
[25] “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? [26] You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god— which you made for yourselves. [27] Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.
Jeremiah 2:10-13 NIV
[10] Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: [11] Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. [12] Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. [13] “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
So God rejected them. For seventy years.
But even on their return from Exile, God’s people still did not understand.
Stephen’s last sermon before he was stoned to death makes that abundantly clear:
Acts 7:51-53 NIV
[51] “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! [52] Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— [53] you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
And their rejection of Jesus was even prophesied – God knew full well it was coming:
Isaiah 53:3 NIV
[3] He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
God rejects those who have rejected Him, as Jesus taught:
Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
[32] “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. [33] But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
So before we get any closer to Christmas, the Word of God contains a very powerful admonition. We must accept Jesus as God. We must accept Him as our Creator. We must accept Him as our Saviour. We must love Him. We must follow Him. We must obey Him.
Because the consequence of rejecting Him is that He will reject you.
And trust me: the consequences of that are not worth thinking about.
We are used to a happy message around Christmas. We are used to ‘Joy to the world’ and ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to men’.
And that is correct. Christmas is a very happy time.
But it is the happiest time for those who have accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
For those who do not, it’s just, as a seasonal special episode of Doctor Who once called it, a celebration of being ‘halfway out of the dark’.
But the problem – the real problem - we all have to deal with at Christmas is not whether or not to get an artificial tree, or what to do with those presents that didn’t come with a gift receipt, or which charity shop to take your unwanted presents to, or even how long to cook your turkey.
It’s even more profound than what to watch on the TV schedule.
No, the real problem at Christmas is what you will do with Jesus Christ.
Reject Him, and the price you pay will last a lot longer than your credit card bill. It will last for all eternity.
Accept Him, and your life will change forever.
So what will you do with Jesus?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I accept You. I accept You as my Saviour. I accept you as my Lord. I admit my sin – that I need You to save me. Help me to follow You for the rest of my days. Amen.
Questions
1. Why is it such a big deal if we reject Jesus? Who is He?
2. Why do you think people reject Jesus?
3. Have you accepted Jesus into your life as your Saviour and Lord? Why / why not?
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