Labels and Rejection
His voice will forever echo in my mind. It was a cheap shot, and I’ll never know if he said it for laughs or to get our attention or if he thought he had really stumbled upon something profound.
It was the summer before my 8th grade year. I was at Junior High camp and the Purple Group was doing the skit that night. They followed a tried and true method: one or two people would read the scripture while a few others would pantomime what was being read. What made this different, and made it forever stick in my memory, was that at a few key spots the adult leader would break in to give some commentary.
The angel was telling Mary that she would soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. Mary asked how this could be since she had no husband. Now the leader broke in and said:
“So, technically, Jesus was a bastard.”
And the room erupted in shocked laughter, myself included.
From a worldly point of view he was right. Jesus had no earthly father. Joseph was a very brave and loving man who stuck around to protect Mary and raise the son of God, to teach him the law and lead his heart to understanding. Our modern minds might find this situation humorous, but in Jesus’ day this was a very serious social scandal. And it was clear that this question followed him around while he was on Earth.
Our Bible lesson this week in Mark chapter 6 points out one encounter. Jesus stopped at his hometown in Nazareth and spoke in the synagogue. He spoke with such conviction and shared such radical teachings that the people were amazed.
The wonderful thing about going home is being around the people who know everything about you. The awful thing about going home is being around the people who THINK they know everything about you. The people of Jesus’ village are amazed at his teaching, but they failed to cast off whatever former understanding they had of him.
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:3 ESV)
Do you see the accusation buried in their reaction? “…the son of Mary…?” How does this illegitimate child think he has some special right to tell us what is right and what is wrong? Mark’s gospel further tells us that “[Jesus] could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.” (Mark 6:5-6 ESV)
What made Jesus able to bear the rejection and scorn of those who set themselves up against him was his knowledge of his identity in his Father. Jesus knew who his Father was, and because of that Jesus knew who he was. We see this assurance every time Jesus prays and in most of his sermons and illustrations and even in his final moments of life, hanging on the cross, crying out to his Father.
I have faced my fair share of rejection and ridicule in my short 37 years. My religious conviction has often been the cause. “Holy Pants,” “Choir Boy,” and “God’s Secretary” have been a few of my labels, and those were the nice ones from my friends. What has kept me going, continuing to love, seek to lift others up and try to see the best in people has been three things:
1. The love and support of my parents (then) and my wife (now)
2. The recognition that Jesus himself was rejected and yet continued to love
3. The conviction that Jesus is the one who gets to define me since he purchased me with his life.
The third has been the hardest to come to grips with, even still. But this is the essence of the gospel: God created you; God knows you and loves you; God has restored you to himself. Jesus didn’t allow anyone but his Father to define him or his mission. He became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:8 ESV)
We must be like him and allow only God to define us (Colossians 3). We must continually come to him in search of forgiveness and restoration (2 Chr 7:14). We must allow him to be Lord and do as he calls us (Rom 10).
So was Jesus illegitimate? No. He was the absolute real deal.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)