An Empathetic Healer

Whether it’s being overlooked from the job promotion or turned down for that second date, rejection never feels good. No matter how many times we experience it, rejection tends to sting in a way unique from other suffering. That’s because rejection goes against our design to be in community with one another and leaves us feeling isolated (Romans 12:10).

No matter how traumatized your own experience has left you, no one in history experienced the pain of rejection more deeply than Jesus Christ. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).

Jesus was rejected by the very people He came to save. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, He was driven out of His own hometown (Luke 4:28–29), turned over to His enemies in exchange for a few coins (Luke 22), and abandoned by each of His disciples when arrested (Mark 14:50). Jesus even questioned if He had been rejected by the Father while left upon the cross, bearing the sins of all of mankind (Mark 15:34). Can you imagine the pain this caused? Rejection from the people we know best breeds feelings of isolation and abandonment.

The Enemy wants you to believe that you are alone in your sorrow, but the rejection Jesus experienced testifies to the fact that we have a Friend who understands our pain. You are never left alone in your rejection. Jesus not only understands our pain; He also provides means of healing. We can confidently approach Christ to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Scripture tells us we have access to a “merciful and faithful high priest” (Hebrews 2:17).

Because Christ has experienced abandonment in the deepest sense, we have an empathetic Healer. Jesus relates to the pain you are experiencing and is always available to provide comfort to those in relationship with Him (2 Thessalonians 2:16). The man of sorrows is here to take away our own sorrow. Though rejection stings deeply now, we remain hopeful for a final home where there will be no more pain. God sent His Spirit to remain in those who trust in Jesus, reminding us that we are never alone (Psalm 139:7–10). We look forward to the day there will be no more feelings of isolation, and we will enter into perfect community with Jesus, the merciful and gracious Healer.