Rejection is part of living among free-will opinionated humans. Everyone thinks they are right and if you don’t think so, just ask them 🙂 In 1902, the poetry editor of Atlantic Monthly returned a stack of poems with this note, “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The poet was Robert Frost.  In 1905, the University of Bern turned down a doctoral dissertation as “irrelevant and fanciful.” The writer of that paper was Albert Einstein. In 1894 an English teacher noted on a teenager’s report card, “A conspicuous lack of success.” The student was Winston Churchill. ¹ You get the point, rejection happens even to the most prolific and influential of men. Yet and still, the Lord instructed us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But what do you do when people reject it? In part one of a series entitled: “The Parables of Jesus: Physician Heal Yourself”, we begin to look at this very issue. But first, let’s take a peek at Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth and His public ministry as a Rabbi in Israel.

Jesus Hometown

Luke 4:23 (KJV)
²³ And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

• The backdrop to this saying of Jesus is His sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth.
• Nothing like a hometown message from a local who made it big, right?
• Wrong.
• Nazareth was a small and poor agricultural town.
  • The lack of remains from the period suggests that houses were constructed of local uncut stones and mud with thatch roofing. The town receives no mention in non-Christian sources from the Roman Period. It likely was known only at the local level, and perhaps enjoyed little esteem even there. ²
  • Estimates have the town’ population somewhere between 200-500 people.
• Think of it. The Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the entire human race born in a backwater village.
• Nathanael had his bony fingers on the pulse of the common public opinion of Nazareth.

John 1:46 (KJV)
⁴⁶ And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

• Nothing good ever came out of Nazareth, nothing.
• That is until God designed Jesus human origins to include Nazareth.

Jesus the Rabbi in Nazareth

Luke 4:16 (KJV)
¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

• Reading the scriptures was an honor given to a rabbi.
• Did you know that several times in the gospels Jesus is referred to as Rabbi?

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Nicodemus called Him Rabbi

John 3:2 (ESV)
² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

The ‘crowd’ called Jesus Rabbi

John 6:25 (ESV)
²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Andrew called Him Rabbi

John 1:38 (ESV)
³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

Nathanael called Him Rabbi

John 1:49 (ESV)
⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Judas Iscariot called Him Rabbi

Matthew 26:25 (ESV)
²⁵ Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

Blind Bartimeaus called Him Rabbi

Mark 10:51 (ESV)
⁵¹ And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”

Peter called Him Rabbi on several occasions

Mark 9:5 (ESV)
⁵ And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

 Mark 11:21 (ESV)
²¹ And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

• The King James Version uses the word ‘Master’ instead of Rabbi. but it’s the same word.

Rabbi’s of the First Century

• Let’s talk about for a moment what a Rabbi was in the 1^st century.
• A Rabbi was a man skilled in the Law of Moses and the Prophets who began teaching and training others in the Scriptures. Each Rabbi usually studied under another Rabbi or group of Rabbis and so had certain credentials within society. The apostle Paul studied under the highly respected Rabbi, Gamaliel, in Jerusalem (Acts 5:34; 22:3).
• The primary function of a Rabbi was to impart a lifestyle through a set of teachings under which a student placed himself.
• Those teachings were called a “yoke.”
• Not a yoke for animals but a yoke of doctrine, a yoke of teachings.
• Remember these words of Jesus?

Matthew 11:29 (KJV)
²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

• Each one listened and considered what was said, becoming more convinced of the call to follow and obey because this was the right way to live. Each pupil knew that through listening, learning, and following a Rabbi, he was taking his yoke upon himself. ³
• Students of a Rabbi were called Talmidim.
• Talmidim is the Jewish word for disciple.
• The relationship between rabbi and talmidim was intense to the second power.
• If the rabbi traveled, the talmadim traveled with him. Every detail of the rabbi’s life was copied, including his walk, talk, and mannerisms. The rabbi’s job was to teach his students along the way, testing them continuously to be just like him. ⁴
• This sheds light on this verse in Acts showing Jesus as Rabbi and the  ‘copying effect’ of the 12 talmindin disciples.

Acts 4:13 (NKJV)
¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

• There is a prayer that comes from the Mishnah which illustrates the Jewish concept of the relationship between a rabbi and his talmidim or disciple.
  • The Mishnah was the Torah [1^st 5 books of the Old Testament] plus the oral law. Commentaries were written by the Jews on the Mishnah. Those commentaries were called the Gemara. Combined together [the Mishnah and the Gemara] as a set these Jewish writings were called the Talmud. Note now the Jewish disciple of a Rabbi were called talmidim.
• The prayer  is as follows.
  • “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.”
• The meaning being, you follow your rabbi so closely that you get covered with the dust of his shoes.
• This was considered a great honor.
• So, you didn’t just show up at the synagogue to listen to your favorite rabbi speak.
• A talmidim entered into intense study on the rabbi’s interpretation of Scripture.
  • They memorized the first five books of the Bible, word for word.
  • There were some master Master rabbi’s that memorized that memorized the entire Old Testament.
  • They entered into passionate discussions about what other rabbis were teaching as their interpretation of Scripture, which brought heated debates.
  • They didn’t just come to listen to a rabbi, but they had to be prepared to have lengthy discussions on their teachings.
  • Passionately they asked questions back and forth, often in heated debates. In Judaism, this kind of studying was considered the highest form of worship. ⁵
• The teaching relationship between a Rabbi and his Talmidim was based on questions.
  • They taught using Rabbinic dialogue whereby a talmid would ask a question; the rabbi would respond with a question; the talmidim would discuss among themselves and respond with another question with the correct answer imbedded in the question.
  • This dialogue could continue for hours.
  • The rabbis used this technique plus pithy sayings and parables to speak to the heart of the talmidim.
  • They believed that “if the heart is moved, the mind will follow, but if the mind is moved the heart may never follow.”
• There were lots of questions that went back and forth between Rabbi and talmidim. Between Master and disciple.
• And so we see Jesus at the age of 12.
• What is He doing?

Luke 2:46 (ESV)
⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

• At this point Jesus is not a Rabbi; He is a talmidim.
• He is 12 years old sitting among the Rabbis and asking them questions; taking part in this questioning dialogue.
• This model, this discipleship model is an intense model and with that in mind let’s look at Matt. 28.

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Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)
¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

• What is Jesus implying here when He said, Go into all the world and make disciples?
• He is saying, understand the intense discipleship model between rabbi and talmidim and then go and replicate that in your ministry to the world.

Call to Action:

Is Jesus your Rabbi? That is is His life the model for your life? The essential elements of faith in God’s Word, make it necessary for believers to model the Jesus life for others. Go into all the world and make disciples is, and will always be, our clarion call.

Question: When was the last time, you helped to mentor someone and show him/her the Jesus way of living? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

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