Jesus loves the Rejects

Jesus Loves the Rejects

What is a reject?

“A person or thing dismissed as failing to meet standards or satisfy tastes”

I could try to define “standards” or “tastes” so you could better figure out if you’re a reject or not. HOWEVER, the problem there is that there is no one standard or one taste. Some people have no standards, some people have really strict standards, they vary based on culture, religion, geographical location, ethnicity, and social norms, the same is true for taste.

 We inaccurately say things like, “they have terrible taste” all of the time when we see what they’re wearing, what color they paint their house, or their shade of eye shadow, because in saying that, we take the right to judge that our preferences are superior and those in opposition to ours are “bad taste,” or that our “norm” should be everyone else’s norm.

So, I’m going to say this one thing, and I hope you’ll grasp it. There is no such thing as a reject in the eyes of God, because God is the creator of every culture, geographical location, and people group…and here’s the thing…He’s very proud of His work.

In fact, He’s in love with it.

He created everything in this world, and it is good…whether we understand it, dislike it, or yep, reject it.

God isn’t interested in a “one size fits all.” He isn’t interested in standards, he’s interested in color, variation, and flavor. The differences between us, you and I, well, that’s God showing off what He can do.

He gave you freckles and rounded hips? He gave you a crooked nose? You have to wear glasses? You’re short and “squaty?” You’re long and “lanky?”  Well….I have kid sized feet, I’m too short to reach the glasses on the top shelf, and I have terrible hair in the morning…

And HE loves it.

Hey world, government, and church…Jesus LOVES the Rejects.

In church, we like to use examples like, “Jesus loves the adulterer, and the murderer,” but let’s take it a step farther and say something that is really controversial.

Jesus loves the girl and woman who had a baby before marriage.

Jesus loves the guy who left, and the guy who stayed, when the girl or woman had a baby before marriage.

Jesus loves the skeptics, and the one’s who use their bible as a book end.

Jesus loves those who don’t know how to read a bible or memorize bible versus

Jesus loves those who do know how to read a bible and memorize verses, and have the option to study theology and scripture commentaries, but choose not to

Jesus loves the wanders and the ones sleeping at home

Jesus loves the Christians who doubt and ask hard questions

Jesus loves the people who persecute the Christians

Jesus loves the people in Heaven and in Hell, He’s just heartbroken over the latter

Jesus’ loves is  provocative and it breaks every idea of standard and taste that we could possible harbor against him.

Jesus loves us.

US.

Not just you, and not just I, but US.

And we can try to summarize it, belittle it, standardize it, and push into our cultural norms and preferences, but it’ll never fit into those boxes. Because grace and mercy and love can’t be held in boxes…that’s why they’re held in the human heart, because He hoped that when we understood these things about Him, they'd fill our human hearts, and overflow into the world.

And they'd know love, grace, and mercy too. And He could be less heart broken when his beloved "rejects" are shunned, persecuted, and forgoten.