Help Rejected: Matthew 23:37-39

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matt. 23:37, NASB).

Have you ever tried to help someone but they wouldn’t let you? In my work as a Registered Nurse and my ministry as a Baptist preacher and teacher, I have tried to help people, but they wouldn’t let me. Let me give an example. One Sunday morning I walked into the pastor’s office, where the pastor, deacons, and associate ministers met together to prepare for the worship services. When I walked in there was a discussion about one of the church members that was sick. I listened and I learned that those in the conversation were saying that they did not know what was going on with the person being discussed. I listened and I asked them what they wanted to know. I was told what the doctor said was the person’s problem. I began to explain the person’s medical condition. Immediately, one of the associate ministers said: “shut up. Shut up Myles. You don’t know what you are talking about.” The other people in the office remained quiet. Everyone in the office knew that I was a Registered Nurse, and they should have known that I would not be saying anything if I did not know what I was talking about; that is from a medical perspective. I felt rejected, unsupported, and alone, but I said no more. It was time to pray and go to the sanctuary to start the worship services. We can learn much about life by studying the events that took place in the lives of people in the bible. In our text, we can learn a lot about rejection and how rejection feels, especially when you are trying to help someone.

The author of Matthew gives his audience an account of the last days of Jesus’ life before He was crucified, beginning in chapter 21. Scholars call this the Passion Week. Matthew gives an account of the teaching of Jesus and the challenges that the religious leader made. They challenged Jesus about His integrity, His knowledge, His credibility, and His authority as the Son of God. Jesus was teaching people the true meaning of what was written in the law. This was very upsetting to the Pharisees because the Pharisees and the scribes believed that they were the final authority on the law. Over the years they had studied the law. They had made amendments to the law, and they were the ones that determined how the law should be applied. The Sadducees had doctrinal questions to ask Jesus, including the resurrection, something that they did not believe in.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was teaching the true meaning of the law and the right application of the law. His miracles while serving the people’s needs also highlighted the errors in the teaching of the religious leaders. From the beginning the religious leaders had sought to discredit Jesus. They looked for an opportunity to kill Him. Indeed, Jesus was a serious threat to the religious leaders because large crowds followed Jesus. Jesus healed people that the religious leaders had written off. The religious leaders were jealous of Jesus because He demonstrated abilities and authority that they believed belonged to them. They were envious of Jesus because Jesus was able to do things that they could not do. Let us return to our text.

In chapter 23 Jesus issues His challenges to the religious leaders. Jesus warned the religious leaders. He told the people to respect them because of the positions that they held, but they were not to do the evil things that they saw the religious leaders do. Jesus condemned the religious leaders, calling them hypocrites. Jesus warned them that they would pay a price for their hypocrisy. They would pay a price for the way that they treated people. After the debates were over, Jesus began to be sorrowful and He mourned over Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital city of Israel. It was the headquarters for Israel’s political leaders and the religious leaders. The people were guided by the decisions that came from headquarters. Jesus addressed the failure of the religious leaders to practice justice for all the people. Jesus practiced justice for everyone without regard to their status in society. This was written in the law. For example the law stated: “Never take advantage of poor laborers, whether fellow Israelite or foreigners living in your towns” (Deut. 24:14, NASB).

The religious leaders in Jerusalem had a long history of injustices. They had killed prophets and those that the Lord had sent to them. Jerusalem had a history of accepting those that taught falsely, and justice for all people was not on an equal basis. Thus, Jerusalem was headed toward destruction. In saying this, Jesus was referring to the destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in AD 70. Jesus wanted to protect Jerusalem from the impending destruction, but He could not. He could not prevent the decision of the sovereign God. Let us look at the ways that people reject what is good for them.

First, we have seen that anger, jealousy, and envy are reasons that people refuse to receive you. They want to know what you know, but they have not applied themselves to gain the same knowledge that you possess. When they reject you, it is their way of killing you. Secondly, people do not believe that God has sent you their way. God shows grace by sending you their way, but they cannot see the hand of God. The associate in the pastor’s office that Sunday morning probably never thought about if God had providentially had me to enter into the office at the exact moment that the questions about the nature of the sick person’s condition were being asked. Again, jealousy and envy blinds the eyes, closes the ears, making it impossible to understand what they are hearing. Let us look at some reasons that people reject help.

Past experiences leads to rejection. Past experiences shape what we believe and how we live. In John 5 a man is lying on a mat. He wants to be healed, but he has just about given up. When Jesus asked him if he wished to get well the man begin to give reason that he had given up. He had been waiting for someone to help to get into the pool when the angel came and stirred the waters. Every year someone else was able to get into the pool ahead of him. Yes, this man wanted to get well, but his past experiences gave him no reason to believe that he would ever be healed.

The man had been coming to the pool for thirty-eight years. He had become a part of the scenery. He did not stand out in the crowd. No one took him seriously. They spoke to him politely, speaking to him was just another habit; something that they automatically did each time they saw him. The man had given up hope. No one cared. He did not have the ability to walk again, and his mat reminded him of his condition every day. His mat said to others that there was no hope that he would walk again. Jesus believed in new possibilities for the man. Jesus simply told the man to stand up. Get up off the mat. Walk and take your mat with you as a testimony to others that you could walk again.

Tradition and past practices is a cause for rejection, and Jesus knew this. Did they believe that Jesus could help them? Did they believe that Jesus cared enough about them to help them? “While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, ‘Lord if You are willing, You can make me clean” (Luke 5:12, NASB). In those days people with leprosy were isolated from other people. No one would get near them. People could not allow people with leprosy to get close enough to touch them or they too might become infected with the disease. Those with leprosy rejected others because mutual rejection was a normal way of life for them. Jesus took a different course of action. “And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (v. 13). The man was cleansed, and on Jesus’ command he showed himself to the priest so that he could reenter into the society.

I am sure that there are other reasons that people reject assistance. We should be longsuffering with people. Their rejection of your assistance has as much to do with what they think of themselves as what it has to do with you. Often people do not want to change. They have become familiar and comfortable with their circumstances. They are afraid of change because change would mean taking on new responsibilities. Change would mean a new self image and people responds to the victim differently. The Pharisees and Sadducees rejected Jesus because they did not want to deal with the changes that Jesus was making in the lives of the people. Their self image was changed because they could see that the people responded to them differently. While the religious leaders rejected Him, the people heard Him gladly. Don’t give up when you are rejected because you never know when you will have an opportunity to make a great difference in someone’s life.