What happens when people recognize the light… but choose to walk away from it?

In this Holy Week message, Nina reflects on the space between Palm Sunday and the cross, where praise turns into rejection. Because recognition is not the same as surrender—and not everyone who sees the light is willing to receive it.

If you’ve ever felt misunderstood, distanced, or rejected while walking with Christ, this episode speaks directly to that experience. There is a deeper spiritual reality behind it, and it may completely change the way you see those moments.

This is a call to keep going. To carry what God has given you. And to remain rooted in your identity, even when others don’t understand it.

🦋 If this message encouraged you, share it with another woman who may need it today.

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🦋 Ready to go deeper? Order Nina’s book, From Broken to Butterfly, on Amazon.

✝️ For questions, prayer requests, or speaking opportunities, contact: ninapajonas@gmail.com

Welcome to Born to Be a Butterfly, where we embrace healing and growth in Christ to experience true transformation.

My name is Nina Pajonas, and I pray that today's message ministers to you.

This week is Holy Week,

and I've been reflecting on something that I don't think we talk about enough.

When it comes to this time of year,

we celebrate Palm Sunday,

we celebrate Easter Sunday.

But what about in between?

How do we go from hosanna to the cross?

How do we go from recognition to rejection?

How do people go from praising Jesus to crucifying him?

On Palm Sunday,

Jesus is welcomed.

He is praised and celebrated.

We read about it in Matthew 21,

verses 8 through 9.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from trees and spread them on the road.

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

hosanna to the Son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest heaven,

they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of of the Lord.

But recognition is not enough.

Recognition is not the same as surrender.

And that is what keeps coming up in my spirit.

Just because someone recognizes the light does not mean they are willing to receive it.

Just because someone sees that Christ is present does not mean they are willing to bow to Him.

That is part of what makes Holy Week so sobering.

Jesus was recognized,

yet still rejected.

People who live in the darkness will reject light to protect themselves.

They reject it to continue on as they have been.

Jesus himself tells us this in John 3:19 21 NIV this is the verdict.

Light has come into the world.

But people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

The perfect example of this is the Pharisees.

I like to call them the Phony Pharisees.

They acted as if they were holy and righteous,

as if they were the true spiritual authority over the people.

But then Jesus came onto the scene,

and he didn't just preach the truth,

he embodied it.

He was the light of the world.

He was the fulfillment of the prophecies.

And he called the Pharisees exactly what they were.

In Matthew 23,

Woe to you,

teachers of the law and Pharisees,

you hypocrites.

You are like whitewashed tombs,

which look beautiful on the outside,

but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous,

but on the inside,

you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Jesus couldn't have exposed the truth of who the Pharisees were more than he did.

He called them out.

He did not mince words.

He did not tell them a version of truth that they could accept.

He did not minimize what they were doing. He did not make excuses for it.

He called it out.

Jesus was and is the way,

the truth and the life.

But the Pharisees did not like the ways of our Lord.

They did not want to know the truth,

and they did not want to live their lives the way they were supposed to.

And so they hated Jesus.

They hated him because they were threatened by him.

They hated him because they knew he had the ability to expose them.

They were seeking Jesus to persecute him and oppress him,

because they wanted to silence him.

Not just his words,

but his light.

Can you imagine the kind of light that Jesus carried?

I mean, I know that he was fully human and fully God,

but can you imagine what it must have felt like to walk beside Jesus,

to be touched by Jesus,

to even be in his presence?

Even if they didn't physically see a light,

they felt the light of his love,

A love so vast and so deep,

the love of our Savior,

our Messiah, Jesus, who came here and suffered horribly,

not just on the day of his death,

but from the day he was born.

He had a hard life and he lived it perfectly,

perfectly to save our souls.

This is the light. This is the love that I'm talking about.

You don't have to see that light physically to feel it spiritually,

to feel it emotionally.

And we have the Holy Spirit inside of us,

so we have that love,

his love,

their love,

living inside of us.

And people are going to feel that.

They're going to feel that before they can even explain that.

And I think this is important for my sisters to know.

There are those of you who are listening,

who have felt hurt by the way that others react to you.

But this is what you must understand.

Sometimes people's reactions to you are not a reflection of you.

Sometimes they are a reflection of what your presence is illuminating in them.

Even with that knowledge,

I know that it is hard because we are human.

We have feelings. We get hurt.

We wonder,

what is it about me?

Why do they not like me?

Why are they so cold?

Why is there rejection why is there distance?

Why is there tension when I haven't done anything wrong?

But hear me clearly, sister.

The answer to all of our questions can be found in Scripture.

We read about this very thing in John 15,

verses 18 through 19.

When Jesus says,

if the world hates you,

keep in mind that it hated me first.

If you belonged to the world,

it would love you as its own.

As it is, you do not belong to the world.

But I have chosen you out of the world.

That is why the world hates you.

It is flesh reacting to faith.

It is darkness reacting to light.

And that can show up as anger,

as envy,

or even cruelty.

Sometimes it leads to gossip or hostility for no apparent reason.

But make no mistake,

the reason is spiritual.

I experienced something like this not too long ago.

I had started a new job,

and it was my first week there.

I was sitting outside at a table,

eating my lunch,

when a woman sat down next to me and started making small talk.

We chit chatted for a few minutes,

and then all of a sudden she said,

there's something different about you.

There's a light about you.

She asked me if I believed in God, and I said yes.

But I also told her,

we all carry his light.

It felt like such a beautiful moment.

But the very next day,

everything changed.

She distanced herself from me.

And I remember thinking,

you recognized something in me,

but chose to stay away from it.

And that taught me something.

Sometimes people recognize the light,

but they do not want to live in it.

Sometimes they don't want to be anywhere near it.

And here's something else that I took away from that.

It's a lesson that I think all of us need to learn.

Recognition does not automatically equal a relationship.

The next day, I was sitting outside in the same spot, and a man came and sat with me.

He asked me why I was sitting alone, and I told him that I didn't know.

I said,

I'm friendly, but there seem to be some people who are avoiding me.

And then he said something that I will never forget.

He said,

nina,

you are in this world,

but you are not of this world.

He said it was obvious in the way I carried myself,

the way I spoke and behaved.

He said he knew I was a believer before I ever mentioned Jesus,

and that shocked me.

As believers, sometimes we can forget that the light of Christ is shining through us,

but people feel it.

And the truth is,

people have to want the Lord.

They have to want his love,

they have to want his light.

But if they don't want his,

they are not going to want yours.

Either I want to share something else because this just happened to me the other day and I knew right away it belonged in this episode.

I was driving and suddenly this bright light came through the trees.

The trees could not block it.

They could not even filter.

Was a beam of light.

And I was almost blinded by was so beautiful,

but it was so bright that I had to put my visor down.

I even took my glasses off because I felt like the light was reflecting off of them.

And as I reacted to that light,

I heard the Lord say,

that is how some people feel about my children.

And I want to be very clear.

This is not about glorifying ourselves.

It is the Lord's light.

We are his vessels.

That is why even on our darkest days,

we still carry something that people recognize as different.

We carry hope that does not fade,

love that does not depend on on circumstances.

We carry the Gospel,

and that is everything.

In Luke 9:22 24,

Jesus tells the disciples,

the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders,

the chief priests,

and the teachers of the law.

And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Then he said to them all,

whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me will save it.

When Jesus says to pick up your cross and follow him,

part of carrying the cross is understanding that there will be rejection.

Not everybody will understand you.

Not everybody will be comfortable with what you carry.

Not everybody will want the truth your life reveals.

But that does not mean we dim our light.

In Matthew 5:14, 16 NIV Jesus says,

you are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus did not shrink himself to make the Pharisees feel better.

He called out hypocrisy.

He exposed what was hidden,

and that is what they hated.

The truth is a light,

and if you are living by that truth, your life will be a light in a dark world.

So some will be drawn to it,

some will even be healed by it,

but only those who want it.

Now let's head over to Hebrews 12,

verses 1:3 NIV therefore,

since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

let us Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us,

fixing our eyes on Jesus,

the pioneer and perfecter of faith,

for the joy set out before Him. He endured the cross,

scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

When I think about Jesus on the cross,

I think about how even they're rejected,

mocked,

beaten and crucified.

He was still the light of the world.

Darkness thought it had won,

but Jesus was doing his greatest work.

That is what Easter is about.

So if people have rejected you,

misunderstood you,

or made you feel like you are too much because you are walking with Christ,

understand this.

Do not dim your light.

Do not shrink your obedience.

Do not let fear fracture your identity in Christ.

There will always be people who reject you at first,

but they will also remember the way you carried the light of Christ.

And maybe one day,

when they need it the most,

they will want to know more about the God you follow.

And then the seed you planted in the soil of their soul will begin to blossom and it will grow into something beautiful.

Let's pray.

Lord,

thank youk for the truth of this message and for the light of Christ that lives within us.

For every woman who has felt rejected, misunderstood, or pushed away because of her faith,

remind her today that her identity is found in you alone.

Give her the strength not to shrink,

not to dim her light,

and not to question what you have placed inside of her Father.

Guard her heart from hurt and replace it with your peace.

Help her to walk in boldness,

obedience and surrender,

even when it is difficult.

And for those who have turned away from you or from us, when we represent you,

we ask that you soften their hearts and draw them closer to your truth.

We fix our eyes on you, Jesus,

trusting that even in rejection,

you are still working all things for good.

In the mighty and matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

we pray.

Amen.

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or if you would just like to connect,

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You can also email me@ninapagonesmail.com the link to my email is in the episode description Until Next time,

remember,

healing is holy.

Transformation is possible.

The Lord can turn your wounds into wings.

You were born to be a butterfly.