He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2
As presented on *The Lutheran Hour® by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, April 11, 1976.
None of Jesus’ men who were with Him practically every day for three years ever bothered to give us a really good description of His personal appearance. We do not know whether He was short or tall, or even whether He had a beard. It really does not matter, they seem to say. But what He was and what He did overwhelmed them!
What people saw on the day of His crucifixion was a man beaten and bloodied, His face so marred and His figure so fractured that you could hardly recognize Him as a man. He was anything but beautiful that day. Yet He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
He is like a fireman whose face was burned so badly from fighting a tremendous fire that people don’t like to look at him. But he rescued a woman from that burning building, and the disfigurement of his face somehow never repels her. She sees herself in that face and in those brutally burned hands.
Liberated from death with the scars still in His hands and feet, and the mark of the spear in His side, the Son of God goes forth to war for us. We are saints who know we are sinners saved by the grace of God on that anything-but-beautiful day, by that anything-but-beautiful silent sufferer. He died to give struggling people rest. “Come to Me,” He said, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is the rest of the children of God.
Jesus, though Your beauty may not have attracted us to You, Your power to save us makes us humble. Thank You for loving us enough to save us. Amen.
Taken from A Message of Hope: Proclaiming the Cross (selections from messages broadcast on *The Lutheran Hour, celebrating 75 years of proclaiming the promise).
Copyright © 2006 by Lutheran Hour Ministries
*The Lutheran Hour is the longest-running Christian radio broadcast in the world. It is a production of Lutheran Hour Ministries. For more information, visit www.lutheranhour.org.
Today's Bible Readings: Deuteronomy 23-25 Luke 6:27-49
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