Sudden sadness swept over my heart last week when I received an email
with the subject line of "rejected". The person who wrote this
subject line wouldn’t admit it, or maybe doesn’t even understand, but
in some respect, buried deep in his heart is a pile of hurt caused by
rejection. Although this specific subject line didn’t relate to his past
rejection, the mere mention of the word rejection in his email struck a
sad chord in my heart.
Jesus made many great exchanges for us on the cross. By this I mean
that He received something negative due us or from us, and in exchange He
gave something positive to us in return. It’s like if I was a really
nice and really rich guy, I’d take your old clunker of a car off your
hands and give you a brand new one. This is a poor analogy, but it’s
"a little bit" like that.
Here’s a couple of examples of what I’m saying. On the cross Jesus
experienced God’s wrath so we could experience God’s love. Wrath that
should have been directed our way was exchanged with love. Jesus felt the
wrath. We feel the love.
Jesus also bore our sickness on the cross so we could experience
healing. Isa. 52:14 prophesied that Jesus’ "appearance was so
disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form marred beyond human
likeness". I think He was so disfigured while on the cross because He
was inflicted with all of our illnesses and diseases. He exchanged our
sicknesses for His healing.
Jesus also exchanged rejection for acceptance while on the cross. When
He cried out to His Father, "why have you forsaken me", the only
response He received was silence. If you think about this a bit, Jesus
really experienced severe rejection. He suffered through the rejection
that should have been directed towards us so that we could find acceptance
with our Heavenly Father.
We’ve all experienced some kind of rejection, though some have
experienced more than others. For anyone who has experience any kind of
rejection the best way to recover is to find acceptance from Jesus.
I went through a time of major rejection a number of years ago and
Jesus came to me with loving arms of acceptance. I remember one specific
time when I sat on our love seat, totally numb, dazed, and confused. The
presence of Jesus came to me as if He was literally sitting beside me. He
reached into my heart and performed major surgery. He didn’t stop at my
heart. He did brain surgery as well. He scraped out the numbness and
confusion. I know some of my friends think I should have asked Jesus for a
brain transplant instead of surgery on my old brain, but I was happy just
getting some surgical treatment at the time. Anyway, this wasn’t
theoretical stuff. It was experiential.
I’ll never de-emphasize good quality Biblical teaching, but at this
point in a life you need Jesus to sit down beside you and bring healing to
your heart and mind. This is not a teacher student situation you’d find
in a classroom. It’s more like a doctor patient situation you find in an
operating room. If you look for Jesus, you’ll find Him, and He’ll do
the surgery without leaving any scar tissue. It won’t cost you any
money, but it will cost you a deeper commitment to Him.
Too many times our Christian lives are in theory only. This should
never be. What I’m speaking about here concerning rejection and finding
healing is not theoretical or clinical. It’s spiritual, and it’s
experiential, and it’s effective in dealing with rejection.