Title: The Cross of Rejection… Hurting with Jesus!
Text: Mark 14:27-46
Thesis: As we reflect on our own experience with personal rejection we share in and understand the suffering of Christ.
Series Key Verse: Philippians 3:10-11
I want to know Christ and experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.
Introduction
I wonder if Peyton Manning felt a little bit rejected when Colts team owner, Jim Irsay, released him rather than pay him a twenty eight million dollar bonus. There were obviously health factors but the fact is, the Colts organization is looking to rebuild their team and hoping to do so by acquiring Sanford quarterback, Andrew Luck, who just happens to be the number one draft pick this year. The Colts will draft Andrew Luck on April 26 this year. Peyton Manning is out and Andrew Luck is in!
Manning was a class act about it. At the news conference he said, “Nothing lasts forever. Times change, circumstances change, and that’s the reality of playing in the NFL.
We all know it’s just business. Peyton Manning knows it’s just business. But being released so a team can replace the old horse and draft a new young Colt feels personal.
I know we don’t need to feel too bad for Peyton Manning. He certainly landed on his feet with his new ninety-six million dollar contract with the Broncos. I suspect landing a new contract pretty much off-sets any rejection he might have felt from the Colts organization.
Who hasn’t experienced rejection? Been laid-off? Turned down for a loan? Gotten a “Dear John” letter? Been “voted off the island?” Been the bachelorette who did not get a rose? Wasn’t picked for a team? Cheated on? Ignored? Double-crossed? Snubbed?
This morning I want to note the contrast between Jesus’ Palm Sunday (Mark 11:1-10) and Garden of Gethsemane experiences. Jesus initially was received as the coming king. But the coming King notoriety wore off pretty quickly and within the week Jesus was betrayed, denied and ultimately rejected just a few days later. It is a curious thing to be so wildly and wholly embraced by so many only to see that infatuation fade until even one of his closest followers betrayed him and finally, perhaps his closest friend, denied knowing him.
This scenario should not and does not surprise us. People can really be fickle. In sports we roll out the red carpet for a new quarterback and if he disappoints us, out with the old and in with the new.
This morning the children processed down the aisle with palm branches marking the triumphal entry of Jesus as he descended the Mount of Olives and entered the gate of Jerusalem. The bible says the people scattered their coats on the road ahead of Jesus while others cut leafy branches from the fields and spread them along the way. And as Jesus passed the crowd was shouting, “”Praise God! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Bless the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!” Mark 11:8-10 But Thursday was coming.
As we unpack our text today we will get a rather sad insight into the extent of desertion and rejection Jesus would feel.
Jesus initially experienced the public rejection of his best friend.
I. Jesus experienced the denial of perhaps his best friend.
Jesus said, “Peter, the truth is, this very night, before the rooster crows thrice, you will deny me three times.” Mark 14:27-31 (14:66-72)
In the storyline of our text, Jesus and his disciples had just celebrated the Lord’s Supper and had gone out to the Mount of Olives. The conversation must have seemed strange, but then much of what Jesus was saying in those last days before going to the cross seemed odd. Jesus simply said, “All of you will desert me, for the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.” Mark 14:27-28
Peter did not respond to the reference to his death and resurrection but he did get very defensive about the accusation that he would desert Jesus. Peter just blurted out, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” “You can count on me, Jesus!” Mark 14:29
But Jesus knew better. Jesus knew and stated, “The truth is, this very night, before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times.” Mark 14:30
Of course Peter immediately raised the ante declaring, “No! Not even if I have to die with you! I will never deny you!” And the others vowed the same. Mark 14:31
We all know the story well… in Mark 14:66-72, as Jesus is being interrogated by the Council a servant girl observed Peter warming himself by a fire and said, “Aren’t you one of the guys who hangs around with Jesus?” Peter shrugged it off and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” And a rooster crowed.
A short time later the girl came around again and said, “I’m absolutely sure you are one them.” And Peter denied it again. She then began to tell other bystanders that she thought Peter was a follower of Christ which prompted Peter to state, “I swear to God, I don’t know this man you are talking about.” And Peter heard the rooster crow again and immediately he realized he had indeed denied Jesus three times.
Peter was so overcome with regret that he broke down and began to weep. He had essentially jilted his friend.
In 1875 Lafcadio Hearn sent the following letter to a woman, with whom he had previously had a romantic relationship. She had apparently sent Mr. Hearn a photo of herself in what she considered to be a flattering new dress. His reply: “I do not like the picture at all – in fact I cannot find words to express how much I dislike it.
“You were never physically attractive to me; you are neither graceful nor beautiful, and you evidently know nothing of the laws of beauty. You are a fine woman in regard to health and strength; but you are not a handsome or even a tolerably good looking woman. You cannot make yourself attractive to me. Don’t try. I am an artist, a connoisseur, a student of beauty, and it is very hard to please me, don’t disgust me please.”Yours truly, L. Hearn
Whatever attraction the lady thought was there at one time clearly was not. It is clear that Mr. Hearn is determined to deny that relationship.
Can you imagine the embarrassment and hurt that lady must have felt when she tore open that envelop and read his hateful and hurtful letter? Can you imagine what Jesus must have felt when his best friend said, “Are you kidding me? I’m not one of his friends. I don’t know what you are talking about.” It is one thing when someone for whom you have no connections or feelings rejects you, but it is quite another when it is someone close to you.
Jesus not only felt rejection from his friend, he also felt forsaken by God as well.
II. Jesus experienced the feeling of being forsaken by God.
He prayed, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” Mark 14:36 (Mark 15:33-34)
When something or someone is forsaken that thing or person is renounced and turned away from. Synonyms for forsaken include deserted, forgotten, rejected and abandoned. To forsake someone is the leave then in dire straits, so to speak. A strait is a narrow passageway between two large bodies of water. So to be left in a dire strait is to be left helpless, alone and stranded. When we use the term “God-forsaken” in reference to a thing, place or person we mean it seems God has literally turned his back on that thing, place of person.
At this point in our story Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and he is praying. He is admittedly very upset. He is as human as human gets at that moment. He admitted to them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death… stay here and watch with me.” Mark 14:34
And then he poured out his heart to his Father, “Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” Mark 14:36
Who hasn’t heard the frightened cry of a child in distress? I don’t care if your child is three years old or thirty-three years old, when your kid cries it breaks your heart and you will do anything to rescue your child.
Stephanie Decker lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle and suffered seven broken ribs, but her two children were unharmed after a twister with 175 mph winds leveled their home in Marysville, Indiana. From her hospital bed she described the frightening moments when the tornado ripped through their lives. She said her children were screaming, “’Mommy, I can’t live without you. I don’t want to die, please don’t let me die,’ and I said, ‘You’re not going to die. We’re going to make it.’”
She spoke of how everything started hitting her back… beams, furniture – everything just slamming into her back, but she said, “I had my children and the blanket and I was on top of them.” (Tom Costello, “Mom who lost legs…” msnbc.com and NBC News, March 6, 2012)
That’s what a parent does when a child is scared to death.
Of course we understand that it was out of a huge heart filled with love for mankind that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit conspired to make a way for us to live.
So it was agreed that Jesus would die for all the sins of all the people of all time in order that he might bring us safely to God. I Peter 3:18
“Christ also suffered when he died for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners that he might bring us safely home to God.” I Peter 3:18
As Jesus prayed there in the Garden he was feeling the sense that God was beginning to turn away from him… that God, his Father, was not responding to his cries of despair.
We get a further glimpse into the depth of the forsakenness Jesus felt in the words he spoke as he neared death.
As darkness fell across the whole land Jesus called out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34
At that moment Jesus felt that God had literally turned his back on him. Jesus felt totally forsaken, totally deserted, totally forgotten, totally rejected and totally abandoned. You cannot feel much more forsaken than that.
But if you add insult to injury it does get worse.
III. Jesus experienced the betrayal of one of his inner circle of disciples.
Judas arrived with a mob that was armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent out by the leading priests, teachers of religious law, and the other leaders. Judas had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I go over and give the kiss of greeting. As soon as they arrived Judas walked over to Jesus. “Teacher!” he exclaimed, and gave him a kiss. Mark 14:43-45
That same night as Jesus prayed to his Father seeking relief if not release from his suffering, he had asked his disciples, those closest to him, to be with him in his anguish. But, as you well know, when he returned he found his friends sleeping. You can hear the disappointment in his voice as he asks: “Peter!” Jesus said, “Are you asleep? Couldn’t you stay awake and watch with me even one hour?” Mark 14:32-42
However the lack of sensitivity demonstrated by his closest friends, pales in the face of the blatant rejection he experienced when Judas betrayed him with a kiss.
Early on in Suzanne Collins’ novel “The Hunger Games,” Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are chosen as the Tributes to represent their home district, District 12. After Katniss’ father was killed in a coal mine explosion she and her family faced starvation. One night while Katniss was scavenging for food in the dumpsters, Peeta the son of a baker and also a young child, saw Katniss searching for food and deliberately damaged two loaves so his mother made him throw them out… but he gave them to Katniss instead. Katniss thought of Peeta as a kind friend who had given her bread when she was starving.
But her first night in Hunger Games Arena, while sleeping in a tree, Katniss sees the Careers, vicious and deadly cruel tributes from the wealthier districts, had formed an alliance and were hunting the weakest tributes together. She is shocked to see that her childhood friend,Peeta, is part of that group and decides that she cannot trust him... the boy who was kind to her as a child had joined forces with those who would take her life.
She felt the rejection and betrayal of a childhood friend who had given her bread and sat in the same classrooms with her while growing up and now he had formed an alliance with those who would take her life..
Shortly before Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples and went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, he had dinner at a friend’s home… a man named Simon. The story is told in each of the four gospels.
In our culture we have seen ecstatic football players dumping coolers of iced Gatorade over the head of their coach. It is generally thought to be a celebratory act and done in good humor. In our story today a woman came into the room while Jesus and his friends were having dinner and poured a bottle of very expensive perfume over Jesus’ head. (I think maybe I would prefer dousing with Gatorade to having a bottle of perfume poured over my head…)
However, the woman’s act was not an act of celebration but an act of loving devotion. And Jesus was pleased. But some of his disciples were in the words of Matthew “indignant.” They were outraged that the waste and began to chew her out because she might better have sold the perfume and given the money to feed the poor.
But Jesus stopped them and told them she had done a good thing because, in his own words, “I will not be with you much longer. She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.” Matthew 36:6-13
Judas must have really been ticked because he immediately went and arranged to betray Jesus for the legendary “thirty pieces of silver.”
And that is what happened in our text today. When Jesus had finished praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas arrived with a mob armed with swords and clubs, who had been sent by the leading priests. Judas walked up to Jesus, kissed him on the cheek and the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. Mark 14:43-50.
And… Meanwhile, all his disciples deserted him and ran away. Mark 14:50
Conclusion:
Though none of us can identify with the rejection Jesus experienced, we all know something of what it feels like to not be liked by everyone.
While working on Saturday night live thirty years ago Al Franken, in the character of Stuart Smalley popularized and later wrote a book by the same title using the self-affirming line, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
I’m sure that Al Franken, now the Junior United States Senator from Minnesota knows there are a ton of conservatives in Minnesota and the country who do not like him. I don’t know him so I don’t know if I like him or not but used to make me laugh.
We all know that we are “good enough, smart enough and that people like us.” But we also know that there are people who don’t. I don’t necessarily think of that as rejection… it’s life. Not everyone likes everyone else.
So we set that aside. Not everyone is going to like us. But when we think someone likes us or even loves us and they reject us in some way that just doesn’t seem right. It hurts. It has been described as feeling like you’ve been “kicked in the gut.” Some are said to have “died of a broken heart” from having been rejected.
• You work for someone or a company for a long time and you think you are set and you get laid off.
• You have given the best years of your life to a relationship and it ends.
• You love your children and devote your life to a child and that child turns his or her back on you.
• You trusted someone with your savings and they lost it for you.
• You share your deepest needs or secrets with a friend and that friend tells someone you stuff.
• Your mortgage lender, to whom you have faithfully made your payments for years, refuses to work with you when times are tough.
• You have a friend who finds a closer friend.
• You lose your spouse and suddenly you are no longer part of the old group of friends.
• You try out for a play or a team and don’t make the cut.
• You apply for a job and are not hired or promoted.
• You ask a simple favor and are turned down.
• You are sicker than a dog and no one calls you or sends a card.
The scenarios are endless… we have all felt the sting or burn of rejection and denial. Some of us have never really gotten over such an hurtful experience. Some people grieve their loss and hurt for years. Some become bitter and hateful. Some become distrustful.
Christie Brinkley is a former supermodel whose failed marriages have become fodder for the tabloids. When she married her Ricky Taubman she named a perfume in his honor… she called it, “Believe” because she still believed in love. But now she says, “I can now say unequivocally I would never marry again.” When asked if she ever designed another line of perfume based on her feelings about marriage, she said, “I would call it Stinks.” (The Week, 8/5/11)
If anyone ever had reason to be angry and bitter it was Jesus but interestingly enough, as he hung on the cross he might have expressed at best disappointment and disillusionment and at worst anger, bitterness outrage, he prayed, “Father, forgive these people, because they do not know what they are doing.”
I wonder if anyone who hurts another person really knows the extent of what they are doing. And I wonder if as followers of Christ we might try to see people as Jesus sees people… I wonder if in our experiences of rejection we might begin to identify with and like Jesus, absorb the rejection and then absolve our rejecters. I wonder if it might be a spiritually healthy and life-giving thing to extend forgiveness to those who have hurt us.
I love the way the Psalmist describes the heart of God in Psalm 103: 13-17, “He has removed our rebellious acts as far as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust.”
As we identify with the suffering of Christ today perhaps we too may find his example of understanding and forgiveness a suitable model for ourselves.
Father, forgive these people, because they do not really know how deeply they have hurt us… because as you well know, they are really just dust people.” Amen
