He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. – Isaiah 53.3, CSB
Jesus’s incarnation was not heralded to the world in bright lights and thunderous roars that should be the prelude to the King’s arrival. Instead, his birth announcement was made by the great host of heaven praising God and declaring, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people he favors” (Luke 2.14, CSB) to a bunch of socially shunned shepherds in the middle of the night. The rejected King made sure to connect with the socially rejected, kind of like a precursor to the life of rejection and sorrow that Jesus would experience.
Within his first couple of years of life on earth, a psychotic king tried to murder him for fear that this boy, who was the King of kings wrapped in humanity, would grow up and take his place of power. And while some men from the east came to worship this “boy King” and present him gifts, there is symbolic weight behind each of the gifts. “While gold represents kingship and divinity, and frankincense symbolizes prayer and intercession, myrrh signifies suffering and mortality. The offering of myrrh to… Jesus foreshadows his sacrificial mission and the redemptive purpose of his life, underscoring the biblical meaning of myrrh as a symbol of suffering and sacrifice” (What is the biblical meaning of myrrh?).
And yet the Son of God came. And not only did he come, he came with the mission to redeem us who have always rejected him. His mission is spelled out clearly in Isaiah 53.
Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities, punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished him for the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53.4-6, CSB (emphasis added)
He took what was ours, and we deemed him to be punished by God. Our sicknesses. Our pains. Our iniquities. Our rebellion. These things brought about the crushing weight of the wrath of God upon Jesus, so that we wouldn’t have to experience it. And yet those who were there at the crucifixion of Jesus felt like God was punishing a false teacher and leader of a rebellion. They didn’t recognize that his substitutionary sacrifice was because of our sin.
From the very beginning of creation, when God created the first human beings, he has been rejected by us who are created in his image. And yet, God has not relented in his gracious pursuit of us. He does not quit. He does not give up. Even while Jesus, in Revelation 3, was knocking from the outside for the church at Laodicea to open the door and let him in, he knocked, desiring fellowship with them who had rejected him for a lukewarm and lackluster religious interaction that left them remaining “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3.17, CSB).
Why would he do it?
“For God so loved the world…” (John 3.16, ESV). God’s love for the world is not swayed by the rejection of the world. May our love for others mirror God’s love for us, even when we are rejected because of our commitment to and covenant with our rejected King.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. – Romans 12.14-18, ESV.
God, thank you for your steadfast and persistent faithfulness in not giving up your pursuit of us. Would you please help us to be like you in pursuing others regardless of whether we are received or rejected by them.
Brian J Holland 
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