Emmanuel

I have struggled with rejection for much of my life. I’m not saying this as a victim asking for sympathy or trying to be an after-school special, but as someone that knows what rejection feels like and who has been striving to live in love, acceptance, and freedom instead. I spent most of my life trying to be good enough and trying to be a person that others would find easy to continue to love with little effort. This behavior was fairly self-imposed and I’ve long been mad that I am not perfect. At times, I have even been frustrated with God for continuing to show me grace and favor when I’ve messed up (I know – I wasn’t thinking clearly).


Last night, I went to the Christmas service at the main campus of my church. The message focused on Emmanuel meaning God with Us, and what that really means. How Jesus lived on earth for 30 years as one of us before he ever began his ministry. He had a family with problems, he had a job, he most likely lost his father prematurely, etc. He truly went through everything we go through as a human so he could show compassion and love to us. During this message, Isaiah 53:3 (see below) hit me like a ton of bricks, but good bricks :-). It finally sunk in that Jesus was rejected. I’ve heard and known that my whole life, but last night I realized that he was PERFECT and REJECTED, at the same time.

No matter what I do on this earth, there is no way I’m going to be as good as Jesus. We cannot be perfect. We cannot be cherished by everyone that we would like to cherish us. Jesus was perfect and he is love, and even he gets rejected on a daily basis.

If you’re ever wondering what you did wrong, what you could have done differently, realize that Jesus did everything just right and it didn’t matter. He was still rejected. He died for people and they still rejected him. The point is, he’s with you. While you’re sitting there wondering why and how, he’s with you. He truly has been there and it hurt his heart just the same.

Isaiah 53:3 (New International Version)

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:3 (The Message)

2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,

a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

Through his bruises we get healed.

We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.

We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,

on him, on him.