Rejection

Matthew 4: 17-22

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 

Have you ever experienced rejection? It’s not a good feeling is it? At these times we often find ourselves reflecting and evaluating our lives and the purposes we pursue. Jesus was rejected by the closest people to Him at Nazareth for preaching the arrival of the liberation Kingdom of Messianic redistribution of power, position and wealth  in favour of those most likely to suffer the ill effects of socio- economic systems and patterns of governance that tended to accumulate wealth and power in the hands of a few. Jesus lived and taught that this abuse of the Law of God was a ‘Turning of His Father’s House’ into something corrupt.  Jesus rejected the idea that the ‘Good Creation’ was to be a place of those who have and those known as the have-nots. Simply by reading at face value the gospel texts we must be struck by how Jesus in His interventions in human life reverses the effects of living ‘East of Eden’. This does not mean that we reduce what Jesus was working towards to a ‘Social Gospel’ as some would call it. We do have to tell the whole story; it was ‘Eden’ that was the sight of the ‘Fall’; it was from the best of circumstances that humanity decided to meet its own needs its own way with the result of finding itself living to the east of the environmental utopia. However, we cannot deny that Jesus teaches and practices the renewal of the social as well as the physical, psychological and environmental creation. He empowers us and makes it possible for us to experience again the transcendent participation in Kingdom life. This is life with the purpose of the creative act revealed to us in Genesis and summarised in John 1 that is: communion with the ever giving, ever ‘other’ valuing and participative community of the Trinity. This is the Kingdom of God that Jesus invites us to participate in; the Kingdom that invites us to transcend the limitations of our limited, prejudiced and egocentric conceptions of our Creator and how this manifests itself in our socio-economic and political ways of life.  It was at the point of His rejection at Nazareth, when people said no to Kingdom values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that Jesus begins to ask again and again throughout His life, death and resurrection that we reconsider, turn our lives around and participate in the Kingdom of God. He chose to share this task with others, the twelve disciples for sure but let’s not forget the faithful women in Mark 15: 40-41. Let us not forget that we too, as disciples of Jesus have been called to live out the values of the Kingdom and invite others to do so even in the face of rejection.