December 13
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:1-4)
In today’s passage, Isaiah gave one of the most vivid pictures of Christ we have in all of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. Interestingly, Isaiah did not paint a picture of a physically imposing, handsome man. He didn’t describe the Messiah as hideous either. Instead, Isaiah described a man of average appearances, without the charms of good looks or the benefits of physical beauty. Isaiah also foretold that Jesus would be a “man of sorrows.” Elsewhere in Scripture is documented that Jesus experienced every temptation and hardship that we face. This is what makes Him our great high priest who is able to personally relate with our struggles. But, this is also what made Him “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
Jesus wasn’t interested in gaining people’s trust using the advantages of good looks. Instead, Jesus came with a central mission in mind: to bear our grief and sorrows and endure God’s wrath against sin on our behalf.
- In what ways might today’s passage teach us to look at other people differently?
- Consider the sorrows you have experienced in your life. Thank God for his willingness to experience every grief we experience and for his taking up our sorrows as his own.