Rejected By the Jews

This semester has been especially interesting to see how many of my classes intertwine with one another. Parts of my chemistry class have gone right along with my nutrition class. The math in chemistry has helped put an edge on my stats class. And my world foundation class has absolutely coincided in time periods relating to my New Testament class. I love it when they do that!

For the last two weeks in my world history class we have been studying the Roman empire and the transformation of it into Christianity. It took a good 300 years after Christ for the empire to even accept those who followed Christianity. Before this, they followed a very polytheistic religion that was very much related to a citizens' loyalty to Rome as a state. If you rejected the gods, you rejected your country. It also took on many aspects of Greek religion or beliefs, making polytheistic worship extremely widespread, including the Middle East areas where Christ taught.

My topic this week is on why the Jewish leaders rejected Christ. He was considered a Jew but was rejected by the leaders as He became more of a "threat" to the nations. It was believed throughout Rome that Christ's doctrine, or Christianity, was simply a Jewish sect, but the actual Jews thought otherwise - and knew otherwise - and I imagine that it simply ticked them off for others to think that they were basically the same. The Jewish leaders had to make a statement and make it known that they were not the same by completely rejecting Christ Himself. And the Jewish citizens followed, of course.

In Matthew 21 we read about a few parables that can be related to these happenings. The first one is about a fig tree. While traveling, Christ happened upon a fig tree that bore no fruit, just leaves. He cursed it, and it withered away (vs 17-20). In the Lord's vineyard, if you aren't bearing good fruit, even if you aren't bearing bad fruit, there just no use for the tree. The leaders rejected Him and He withdrew blessings among them.

In vs 28-32 we read about a man who had two sons and asked each of them to do something. The first said that he wouldn't but then repented and did what he was asked. The second son said he would do it and never did. In vs 31-32 Christ states, "That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." The publicans and harlots - the "common" people - may have at first rejected Him, but then believed on Him as they actually understood the teachings. The leaders were taught by John and perhaps made it look like they believed for a little while, but rejected Christ and His teachings in the end.

To me, though, knowing a bit about the historical context of all these happenings puts it into a little more perspective, at least with Rome. For the Romans, rejecting and refusing to worship the "gods" was like Americans burning the flag at the foot of the White House. You're not just a rebel, you're a threat and a heretic. I'm not saying that putting Christ to death was acceptable in any regard, but I can see how a disruption among so many people and beliefs could lead to such events. Luckily for us, we have the freedom to worship any way we want, and I choose Christ.