Jesus Rejected In His Hometown

The story of Jesus being rejected in Nazareth has always been a tough story for me. I mean, it’s his hometown and the one place he should be accepted the most. Friends and family dwell there - all who saw him grow up and become a man. That is NOT how this story goes though.

Later on in Luke 14:26, Jesus actually says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters- yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Surely Jesus did not mean “hate, “ but what Jesus was saying is that we need to love God so much, that nothing -  not even family - should stop us from living fully for God.  Of course Jesus was going to be rejected in his own town, because he was so passionate about preaching the gospel it made them uncomfortable.  Do you make others feel uncomfortable by your passion for the gospel?

What I love about this story is that Jesus pretty much builds them up, and right when they think they know what will happen, Jesus flips a switch on them.  He reads a few verses in Isaiah about being freed from slavery and given favor by the Lord, and the crowds go crazy and “spoke highly” of Him as they rejoiced that Christ was on their side.  The story doesn’t end there, though. He continued by telling a few stories where it was not the healthy that were chosen, but the weak and needy. That’s why Jesus came - to heal, not to comfort the healthy.

This applies to my life because I have been rejected in my hometown. I became a Christian when I was a junior in high school and everyone else still saw me as the boy that always got in trouble, even when my heart was sold out on Christ. I was even rejected in my own household by my brother and sisters. They laughed at me for many years because they didn’t understand how much I was giving up my former ways for the sake of the gospel. I was rejected, and at times still am rejected for my beliefs to this day, but every day I have to wake up and decide whether I will be so sold out for God that my words and actions make people uncomfortable. Because Christ didn’t come to make peace, he came to stir hearts up and save the world. How will you choose to live today even if it makes the people closest to you uncomfortable?

- Jason Allen