Why Jesus gets rejected

May 9, 2021

15:18 – 16:33 Sent into the world, just as Jesus was sent

Read John 15:22-25

By its rejection of the one sent by God, the world’s ignorance of God was revealed (15:21; 8:19; 16:3) for the works of Jesus were the works of the Father. So to reject Jesus was to reject God too (23). Because Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him (14:10), the failure to recognise him is rebellion against God himself. Therefore, by their refusal to believe in Jesus, their sin was both multiplied and exposed (22,24). The disciples should not have been surprised by this, for it was predicted in the Scriptures (25; Psalm 35:19; 69:4. Here “the law” refers to the whole of the Old Testament).

This does not mean that if Jesus had not come then they would have been without sin. But to reject Jesus’s words and his works was to reject God’s fullest revelation and therefore left them without any excuse. The same point was made by Jesus to some Pharisees after the healing of the blind man in John 9: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind... Now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (9:39-41).

It remains true today. John sums it up right from the start of his gospel: “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world… but the world did not recognise him” (1:9-11). The verdict is clear: “Light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light” (3:19-21). However, all who are willing to believe in him and receive him into their lives – both then and now – become God’s children (1:12), transferred by him from darkness to the kingdom of light (Col.1:12-13). So, “live as children of light”, bearing “the fruit of light” in a dark world (Eph.5:8-9).