COV LIFE BLOG

Mark 15:16 – 16:8 – Christ Rejected So That We Could Be Brought In

From his birth to his death, rejection was a significant theme running through Jesus’ life. He came to his own but his own received him not…he was despised and rejected by men.
 
The question is, why? Why was Jesus’ life so characterized by rejection? Why would he leave his throne in heaven where he was loved and worshipped and obeyed unquestioningly and come to earth, where for the most part he wouldn’t be loved and worshipped, he would be hated, mocked, despised and rejected?
 
 It is for this one simple, glorious reason: Jesus was temporarily rejected so that we might be eternally accepted. Jesus was rejected so that we might be accepted by God as dearly loved sons and daughters. God the Son entered the human race as a man in order to identify with us and save us from our wretched condition and rejection is at the core of the human condition. We have rejected God. When sin entered the human race, it caused our hearts to go rogue, rejecting the God who created us, rejecting God’s rule over us, setting ourselves up as our own gods, ruling our own lives. We are born with a sin nature that rejects God and turns from His ways.
 
But that rejection is a two way street. Because of our sin, God must reject us. God is perfectly righteous and just and He hates sin with a ferocity we can’t even begin to imagine. When people think that they’re ok with God because they’ve never done anything all that bad, they have no idea how repulsive and serious their sin is to God. Hell is God casting us away from His presence – rejecting us from His presence – forever. It is the most horrifying and terrifying rejection imaginable.
 
As Jesus hung on the cross, God would reject him because he represented mankind and all its sin. We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4,6 Jesus took the punishment and the fury our sins deserved.
 
Jesus would absorb all this rejection and transform it into acceptance. At Christmastime when we come to the stable and look into the manger and see Jesus lying there, we are seeing God’s Master Plan for turning rejection into acceptance so that to as many as received him, he gave the power (authority) to become children of God. You don’t get more accepted than being adopted into the family as a child. When we accept Jesus by faith as our Lord and Savior, God forgives us our sin and adopts us as His own beloved children. We are born again into the family of God, deeply and forever accepted by God, never to be rejected by God. This is the good news of great joy the angels spoke about. It’s the greatest gift we could ever be given.

Allen Snapp

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Mark 15:16-39 for our Good Friday service and Mark 16:1-8 for our Easter Sunday service. While you read these passages take time to slow down and consider the great beauty and power in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. How do this encourage you? What difference ought it make in your life?

SONG FOR THE WEEK
O Praise The Name by Shane and Shane