Read Matthew 11:20-28
The feeling of rejection may smart more than any other emotion…for the male ego anyway (I can’t speak for the gals). The human need for acceptance is deep and compelling. For the Jesus follower, however, some rejection is built in. The believer, after all, is rejecting a world system of thinking and behaving. It only stands to reason that the believer will experience rejection by some in return.
Jesus himself was no stranger to this feeling. The people of the towns who rejected him were places of deep religious fervor. Jesus even lived in one of the towns that summarily dismissed him as a prophet, much less Messiah. In all their religious wisdom, they were just too smart for Jesus’ simple truth of law AND spirit.
But the Heavenly Father revealed himself through his son to those humble enough to hear. The childlike are those he receives; those who abandon worldly wisdom and choose to know the Father personally by introduction through his son.
We reject Jesus because we seek control. Either by comfort and pleasure or by religious adherence, we try to keep God in his place and make him only respond to us by the rules we make. Both of these are exhausting…a heavy burden.
The Jesus way is to come and rest in him. This cannot mean there is no work to do, but rather that we work WITH him. But instead of the exacting price of the world or religiosity, we experience the surrendered life. This life is the one in which we deny ourselves and let Jesus carry the larger load. The goal in this way of living is to arrive rather than to strive as we walk alongside Jesus in the yoke.
TIMBO FOWLER 