As we trace the stories of Jesus through the eyes of the four gospels, each week we’re going to highlight a particular theme of Jesus’ ministry. Last week it was discipleship and the questions around how people respond to Jesus’ call to follow him. This week is a super fun theme — rejection!
In our culture, we really like to focus on the positives. If I do the right things, good things will happen to me. If I work hard, I will get a promotion. If I am a good person, people will recognize that and give me with more responsibilities. In a just society, that’s the way things work, right? Except, we all know that things don’t always break the right way, and what we’re going to learn today is that rejection is actually part of the package of following Jesus.
Let me begin with the story of Drew Maggi. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1989. Maggi was a good enough player that the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him in the 47th round in 2008, but he opted not to sign, instead joining the Arizona State University baseball team and earning all Pac-12 honors as a shortstop. After two years, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in the 15th round. This time he signed and then spent four years in Pittsburgh’s minor league system, never getting called up to the Big Leagues.
From there he played in the minor leagues for the L. A. Angels, the L. A. Dodgers, Cleveland, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and eventually returned to the Pittsburgh system. Talk about rejection. This guy was a world-class baseball player, but year after year he languished in the minors, watching countless others get called up while he stayed back.
Still, he persisted. On April 26, 2023, Maggi made his Major League debut, coming on the pinch hit in the eighth inning. He saw four pitches, fouling off two, taking a ball, and then missing the third strike. Maggi’s debut came at the age of 33 years and 345 days old. He is the ninth oldest player ever to make his Major League debut. He stayed up for three games, collecting two hits, one run, and one RBI, before heading back to the minors, where he continues to this day. For the Tigers fans here, he’s yours now at AAA Toledo. Who knows? Maybe he’ll help Detroit make the final push they need to get into this year’s playoffs.
We can learn a lot from Maggi’s persistence, but I’m going to focus on a different aspect of this. Throughout his life, so many have viewed Maggi as an excellent baseball player, but, except for three games, they have not known him as a Major Leaguer. They didn’t see in him what he knew to be true for himself. How else do you not give up after playing thousands of games in the minors?
As we’ve been following Jesus in the gospels, it’s wild how amazing he is. He’s a superb teacher. He’s healing everyone. He’s changing lives. Who wouldn’t want to be around Jesus? Well, it’s hard coming home, isn’t it?
Word has spread far and wide about Jesus. When he comes home to Nazareth, they don’t see it. They remember him going to building sites with his father, Joseph. They remember him playing at home with his siblings. They’ve seen him weak or sad or silly. They don’t see in Jesus what he knows to be true for himself. Jesus knows he’s God’s Son. He knows he has a special mission to unveil God’s kingdom. He is going about his Father’s business only to have his hometown throw a wet blanket on it. It’s wild to think their lack of belief limited what Jesus could do, but that’s how Matthew sees it.
Who does Jesus think he is? they protest. They don’t see in Jesus what he knows to be true for himself, which is a huge mistake, especially because they are missing the earth-shattering difference that Jesus can make for them and all the world.
But let’s pull back from Jesus for a minute. This type of rejection — not being seen for who you are — is something we all experience, right? It’s crushing when someone thinks less of you than you are, when someone boils your whole, complex self down to a cartoon version, when someone takes a look at you or your résumé and says, “Next!” when you know you are capable and ready for more.
Rejection is painful. It is especially so when it is short-sighted and undeserved. Do people see you as you are? Or do they see you as a caricature? Let’s flip that around, too. Do you see others in all their fullness, or do you boil them down to some labels that make it easier for you to dismiss them or belittle them or treat them in some way less than the person God created and loves and who bears God’s image, just so you can keep your world tidy from challenge or complexity?
My friends in Christ, let us not make the mistake Jesus’ hometown neighbors made with him. Let us learn to go deeper with our neighbors, to hear their stories (with all their hurts and joys), and to know them deeply. This kind of rejection that Jesus experienced is very much a part of life, but as we see Jesus in action, we see that those who are rejecting what he is doing are the small-minded who refuse to see the arrival of God’s kingdom in their midst.
Our second reading gives us a different form of rejection. This is the kind of rejection that happens when someone speaks the truth to power. Let’s be honest about John the Baptist — he was abrasive. I was talking about him to some staff last week and said that I suspect none of us would have wanted John in our lives. John’s standards for righteousness were high, and he had no time for half-measures. He didn’t care who you were — even if you were those ruling the land where John was operating — he would tell you how you were wrong.
I don’t know how many of you remember Dikembe Mutombo, who played in the NBA a couple decades back. He is 7 feet 2 inches tall and played center for a half dozen NBA teams. He was especially known for his defense, collecting 3,289 blocks, which is second all time in the NBA. At some point in his career, Mutombo began wagging his finger every time he blocked a shot. You shall not pass
I picture John the Baptist as the Dikembe Mutombo of the Bible. You’re trying to make it past him with whatever in your life you’re trying to sneak by, only to find him stuffing your shot and wagging his finger at you. There’s no way you’re getting by him.
John had done his finger wag even at the most powerful people in his world. Herod had grown tired of John’s finger-wagging, so he put John in prison. Herod, who was not particularly known for minding his morality, had claimed his brother’s wife, Herodias, as his own wife, and John had a loud word for that — adultery. His finger wagging in Herod’s face, John let him know he was wrong, and Herod wanted to kill John for saying so. Except, Herod was a politician and knew the winds weren’t in his favor, so Herod just hid him away in prison.
You’ve heard the rest of the story already. Herod, under the influence of drink and popularity, made a rash vow when he saw Herodias’ daughter dance. She asked for John’s head on a platter, and Herod was cornered. He made the order, and John, the one who spoke truth to power, came to his end. The powerful have violence at their disposal, and they will use it.
(Incidentally, Matthew places this story right in the middle of his gospel, and I see it as a clear foreshadowing of what is coming for Jesus, who also spoke truth to power and was rejected for it. In the verses that follow, Jesus hears the news and goes off by himself in a boat. I have started wondering if this action by Jesus was not just grief — although it surely was — but also if the harsh reality of what would be coming for Jesus was coming home to him. It’s almost as though this boat is a precursor to his fervent prayers in the Gethsemane garden just before his execution at the hands of the powerful.)
So, a couple of thoughts on what this means for us. First, as followers of Jesus, we should expect rejection when we take humble stands for God’s way that go against the norms of society. The powerful don’t like laying aside power. So, if you are under the illusion that following Jesus is going to lead to an easy, simple life, you need to wake up. The way of Jesus is the way of the cross, the way of rejection.
But second, there are a whole lot of people who claim the name Christian but who use their faith to behave like jerks and who take rejection as a badge of honor that proves them right. It’s a form of self-deception. It’s a wicked form of self-righteousness that is out of step of the way of Jesus. That was not John’s way. That is definitely not Jesus’ way, and so we have to be mindful of our motivations when we face rejection. Is it for my benefit? Or is it because Jesus has called me to a new way of life that is out of step with others? It’s actually something that is critical for us to monitor because, if I’m being perfectly honest with you, none of like being wrong even though we often are.
The words of Isaiah 53:3 have been bouncing through my head while I’ve been dwelling on this theme because they are part of Handel’s Messiah, which uses this text to speak about Jesus. “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.”
So, here’s the reality. If we are trying to live our lives as though Jesus were living ours, then we should expect rejection. Not because we seek it out. Not because we’re trying to be antagonistic. But because our world is out of step with God’s love that we know in Jesus. The message of the gospels is this: Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and he will carry you even in the hard places and the places where you feel cast aside.
I want to close with this thought. Have you ever tried to find God in the rejection or in the hard places? I’ve been doing some inner spiritual work on myself to ask this question. To be honest, my life has not had a lot of turbulence, which has led to me looking for God only when things are working out. I could tell you — in theory — that God is there in the darkness, but I didn’t experience it. But now I’m learning that God is even there in the rejection, in the dark nights of the soul, in the loneliness and hurt. So, as we are learning to become more like Jesus, I invite us to see Jesus even in the hardest places. He was present at Gethsemane. He was despised and rejected. And yet God was with him — present — even there.
