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"And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, 'A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.' ... As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone."
(Matthew 13:57, 14:13a, NLT)
Have you ever had a passage of scripture hit you extra hard in a particular season?! For me, that has been Matthew 13-14! For the next few days, I want us to look at the latter part of Matthew 13 and the whole of Matthew 14. If you can, read Matthew 13:53-14:13a. If you are confused about what 13a is, just stop after the part where Jesus wants to be alone.
After reading these passages this Tuesday, what stood out to you? When I recently read these passages, the reality of Jesus' hard times jumped off the page and into my mind. From these verses, we see that Jesus' hometown and the people He had grown up with rejected Him and could not believe that He was this powerful Messiah doing miracles and having all this wisdom. In verse 55, it says, "Then they scoffed, 'He's just the carpenter's son...'" This had to have been hard for Jesus. Yes, Jesus knew that these people would reject Him, but that doesn't mean He was immune to the feelings of being rejected and doubted.
If the rejection of His hometown wasn't enough, Matthew 14 picks up and tells us of John the Baptist's brutal murder at the hand of Herod Antipas. John died because he was telling the truth at an unpopular time. He was standing up for Scriptural values in the face of a powerful opponent, and it ended up costing him his life. When Jesus is told of this, we see his reaction in Matthew 14:13: "he [Jesus] left in a boat to a remote area to be alone."
For today, we are stopping at the first part of verse 13, and we will pick back up here tomorrow. Why stop at Jesus being in a remote area, wanting to be alone? Why focus on Jesus' hometown rejecting him? Why focus on Jesus' friend dying a brutal, undeserved death? I think it is important to realize the truth that as you and I endure hard times here on earth, Jesus endured even harder times while He was here on earth. We know ultimately the most difficult part of Jesus' life was taking on the sins of the world and being separated from the Father on the cross, giving up His life so that we would be saved, but that was certainly not the only hard part of Jesus' life. He endured rejection from those he was close to. He endured the heartbreak of a loved one gone too soon. He endured the emotion of losing a friend and wanting time to Himself to mourn and process. Jesus, just in these few verses in Matthew 13 and 14, endured hard times that we can more fully comprehend and relate to.
Knowing that Jesus endured these challenging times assures us of the reality of hard times as human beings and followers of Jesus. Looking at Jesus' hard times also shows us an example of what to do when we go through hard times. We will discuss this more tomorrow.
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