"When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. 'We had no idea he was this good!' they said. 'How did he get so wise, get such ability?'

"But in the next breath they were cutting him down: 'We’ve known him since he was a kid; he’s the carpenter’s son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?”'They got their noses all out of joint.

"But Jesus said, 'A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family.' He didn’t do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference" (Matthew 13:53-58 MSG).

If you've ever spoken to a crowd, taught a small group, or communicated your faith in any way, you may identify with this story from Matthew 5. I noticed a few helpful truths in this passage.

1. Jesus always communicated with stories.
2. Sometimes people were impressed with him.
3. Sometimes people criticized him.
4. Jesus noticed how he was received.
5. Jesus moved on, when criticized. 

Facing criticism. Reading the acccount of how Jesus handled criticism reminded me of a story from my past. 

"Some people just aren't going to like you!" My husband, Dad,  informed me, as I whined about some critical words that had been spoken behind my back.

Up to that point, I guess I believed that I could always find some way or do something to make anyone like me. I had been pretty successful at pleasing people most of my life—until that moment. But I had finally met my match. Ol' Bessie (name changed to protect her identity) had decided from the day I met her that she wasn't going to like me.

Why? Because she wanted to be best friends with one of my close friends. And Ol' Bessie wanted me out of her way!

I felt like I was back in junior high, where the girls could really get mean about friendships. What made it worse—Ol' Bessie was my Sunday School teacher and our pastor's personal secretary. But she wanted to get me out of the way, so she could get close to my friend, whose husband was also on staff at our church.

Not only did I discover how naive I was about the integrity of leaders, I was also blind to my own problem with performance-based acceptance. And through the years, I continued to learn this lesson over and over again. 
It seems just when I think I've overcome my problem of performance-based acceptance, I'm hit in the face with more criticism. So, I discovered from painful, personal experience that one minute people will sing your praises, and the next moment, they might be whispering critical words about you behind your back.

Finding direction. What can you do? Run and hide behind a tree? Maybe. With Ol' Bessie, I went and hid behind my husband for a moment, whining about my hurt feelings.

What did I learn? I discover the truth or rather the "Truth." This personal offense caused me to run to God's Word for some direction and peace of mind. "Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you" (John 8:28 MSG).

In the process, I asked myself this question: Who do you really desire to please?

I discovered that I can't always please a fickle crowd, that's for sure! But thankfully, I have a faithful heavenly Father, Who loves me unconditionally, whether I perform well or not!

Photo/KarenJordan

Has a fickle crowd ever discouraged you? What did you do?