Following The MessiahSample

The Road to Galilee:

Have you ever felt rejection?  When someone doesn’t want to hear what you have to say, it hurts.  Jesus is no stranger to rejection.  Unfortunately He faced rejection throughout His entire ministry.  Undoubtedly some of the hardest rejection He had to face was that of His hometown of Nazareth. These were people familiar with Him.  They were neighbors, friends and possibly even family.  We read that they wanted to kill Jesus when He professed to be the Messiah.  

What did Jesus do when Nazareth rejected Him?  He went to Galilee and settled in at Capernaum.  There He found the men who would follow closely and become His chosen twelve.  

Imagine that trip from Nazareth to Capernaum after being run out of town because people didn’t want to hear him, didn’t want to believe him.  That had to have been a hard trip to make.  However, we see a strength in Jesus that we all need to adopt.  Jesus wants everyone to hear His message, but He isn’t going to force that message on those who choose not to hear.  

In our lives we need to find the strength to share God’s wonderful message with those around us.  We need to realize we’re going to face rejection much like Jesus faced.  Maybe we won’t get run out of town, but we might lose friendships, we might encounter people who say hurtful, mean things to our face, but that’s out of our control.  When that happens we just need to move on like Jesus did.  In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the people about a farmer who sowed seed.  It fell on different soils.  Some soil accepted the seed, some soil rejected it.  It’s not up to us to decide who gets to hear the word.  I can imagine Jesus thinking about His hometown of Nazareth when He was telling this parable.  

Watch episode 4  of Following the Messiah.