The Pain and Evil of Jesus' Rejection (John 1:10-11)

"He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" - John 1:10-11

Our ability to remember events in our lives and to recognize people is foundational to forming and maintaining relationships. Under some situations, though, our brains can lose their ability to make connections between the things we once knew and the things we now see and experience. There is something deeply painful and exceptionally difficult about not being able to remember events or suddenly losing the ability to recognize people that are the closest and dearest to us and with whom we have the deepest of intimate relationships. I have only heard stories about the devastation that dementia or brain damage can cause to families, but there is something very painful and disturbing in the stories of people waking up in the hospital after an accident having no recollection of who their spouses or children are. None of these stories, however, is as painful to hear and read as the story of the Jews, who did not recognize their own Messiah when he finally came for them.

The Father, who had a perfect relationship with the Son, also had a deep and unique relationship with His people, the Jews. Jesus himself created this people, Jesus himself formed them in their mother's wombs and provided for them the breath to sustain their delicate lives. For centuries, Jesus himself had specifically guided, protected, and saved the Jewish people from the enemies who sought to wipe them out. Jesus had been quiet for 400 years, and now, the unimaginable was going to happen. Jesus, the creator of the earth and the people of the earth (John 1:3) was coming to the earth as a man, to walk with his people, and eat with his people - to save his people. Yet John tells us that his own people did not receive him, in fact, they outright rejected him.

John summarizes the encounter between Jesus and the Jewish people who had been waiting for his arrival for centuries in these few verses, and he says that although Jesus had now entered the world he had created, the world did not know who he was. More than that, John says that "his own people" did not receive him and goes on to say later that they rejected him and condemned him to death. The reality of Jesus' rejection had been predicted in the Old Testament (Ps 118:22-23), but it did not diminish the very real pain, sorrow, and loneliness experienced by the man Jesus Christ. Jesus was rejected, mocked, stricken, and betrayed by his friends, his family (including his half-brother James), and many of the priests and scribes. All these people had read the prophecies, they knew what to expect, they knew the signs, but when the light finally came into the world (John 1:9), they turned away. From the moment of his birth in a manger, to his last breath on a cross, Jesus lived his life being despised and rejected, alone and unrecognized (Isa 53:3).

The Jewish people did not suffer any brain damage that prevented them from recognizing the Messiah as described in the Scriptures when they finally met him face to face. Their problem was not in their brain, but in their heart. The sin in their hearts was a worse disease than Alzheimer's, with far more devastating consequences. Their evil hearts made it impossible for them to "make straight the way of the Lord" as was cried out by John the Baptist (John 1:23). The people were expecting a political king, but instead were given a homeless teacher. They were expecting a ruthless conqueror, but instead were given a merciful saviour. They were expecting to be honoured and exalted, but instead were rebuked and humbled. The light had come, and it had come into the darkeness, but the darkness could not remain dark in the light and so the darkness rejected the light (John 3:19). In the same way, the Jews rejected Jesus because turning to Jesus would mean turning away from darkness, from who they were. Turning away from our own sin is the single greatest obstacle for every human being, and it involves receiving the true light that is so contrary to all we know ourselves to be.