Here’s a simple lesson after a familiar story. Jesus returns to Nazareth.

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. (Mark 6.1, ESV)

But his hometown friends rejected him…

And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. (Mark 6.5, 6a, ESV)

In a discipleship class a while back someone observed, “Maybe he healed only a few because only a few asked.” Unbelief among everyone else.

BUT, he kept going. It’s easy to skip over the last sentence in the story:

And he went about among the villages teaching. (Mark 6.6b, ESV)

That last sentence may be among the most important. What do you do after rejection? Jesus kept doing what he was doing.

He gave essentially the same counsel to the 12 when he sent them out a few verses later:

And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” (Mark 6.10, 11, ESV)

Shake the dust off and keep going. Not a bad word.