The commandment was crystal clear.
Any creatures of the sea without fins and scales, any animals without a split hoof, who didn’t chew their cud, and also certain birds (check the list)—were all unclean. Not kosher. REJECTED.
What did THAT mean? They didn’t get EATEN.
The blemished lambs. The broken, bruised, scarred, disfigured ones—were disqualified. REFUSED.
What about THEM? They didn’t get sacrificed. They GOT to LIVE.
Rejection. It’s such an awful word. An awful place to be. Let’s get real: vomiting over a toilet feels better than rejection. At least you’re getting the vile stuff OUT. Flushing it. Distancing IT from YOU. Sometimes, you did NOTHING wrong. It’s not what you DID—it’s YOU. And you’re stuck—you can’t get away from the YOU that nobody wants. Putting a smile on doesn’t change anything. The truth is … the truth hurts.
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him … we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3 KJV) Yeah, like that. Standing, bleeding and wounded, in the middle of a crowd of people, and EVERYsingleONE is looking away.
Rejection. The good in you AND the not-so-good in you—refused at the same time. They’ve thrown the baby out with the sweetly-scented bath water. All the GOOD you could’ve done for them—is now tossed away like expired yogurt. You stand dejected and ejected. Shut out and shot down. Alone.
But … SURELY … HE knows.
Jesus WAS the ultimate sacrificial LAMB. He was perfect and without sin. He did NOTHING wrong—He did EVERYTHING right. Yet, in the process, He WAS broken, bruised, blemished, scarred, and disfigured. By SIN. OUR SIN. Therefore, BY THE RULES, He WAS disqualified from being a sacrifice for SIN. Period.
But here’s the wonder of it all: He MADE the rules—then He came to CHANGE THE RULES! WE were the ones who were sin-maimed. We should’ve had to live in our blemished—and therefore rejected—state forever. But BY HIS brokenness, bruises, scars, and wounds—WE ARE FOREVER HEALED! He turned the tables—He changed the list of disqualifications to be REQUIREMENTS. “Bring IN the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” (Luke 14:21 KJV) What was once rejected is now APPROVED and INVITED.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite (crushed) heart, THESE, O God, You will NOT despise.” (Psalm 51:17 NKJV)
Organ transplant recipients must take strong medications after surgery and every day for the rest of their lives. They’re called “anti-rejection” drugs, and they’re critical to the viability of the “new” organ because the recipient’s body never forgets the “insult” of a transplant. However, there are no “anti-rejection drugs” to prevent the emotional pain of a broken rejected heart—and the pain of it is never easily forgotten.
But Jesus holds us in OUR deepest hurt. He AND we are scarred and disfigured—together. We CAUSED His scars—He HEALS ours. He looks beyond the rejection and knows there IS good … REAL GOOD … in us. Deep down. How do we know? Because HE put it there. The HOLY SPIRIT. He planted it IN US, and THAT’s what connects us FOREVER to HIM.
“He performeth the thing that is appointed for me …” (Job 23:14 KJV)
Here’s the thing: God is GOOD. God sees who we really are, and, if we are HIS—in His GOODNESS—He sometimes MAKES us go through rejection. “For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.” (Job 5:18 KJV)
Why would He do that? He is purifying what is GOOD in us. Like a treasure. Like a nugget in His scarred hand. “He knows my way … after He’s tried me (after I come through this tunnel of tears), I’ll come forth as GOLD.” (Job 23:10)
So, if you feel rejected today, know THIS: rejection has happened to the very BEST of us. HE identified with us when He became the blemished Lamb … “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5 KJV) Because of Him, we GET TO LIVE!
“I will not reject you,” says the LORD. (Leviticus 26:11 CJB)
Prayer: LORD Jesus, when I feel rejected, that’s when I feel closest to YOU. Help me to be patient, waiting to see the good that YOU are doing in it. In Your name, Amen.
