The Punishment That Brought Us Peace
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He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:2-6 NIV
Some interpret verses 2-3 to mean that Jesus had some type of deformity or condition that made him unattractive, distressing or uncomfortable to look at. I have long contended, in my humble opinion, that the verses simply mean he seemed to be a “regular person” in every way. He was not perhaps extremely physically attractive, but rather average looking. I think he was despised and rejected because one look into his eyes revealed one’s sins.
Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering because that is the very reason God sent Him to earth – to be our suffering, to be our sorrows, to take them upon himself for us. That would certainly have been a reason for tremendous guilt. I imagine he emanated an energy that was unnerving at first. He must have had an aura about him, a energy force that surrounded him, especially once he began his ministry.
I am so humbled when I think about God allowing Godself to endure such a tortuous death. I can’t comprehend that yearning to walk in our skin, to be flesh and bone. How he must have been grieved to have even conceived such a need for our salvation. I wonder when he realized his most precious creations were flawed to the point that there was only one way we could ever get to heaven. Some time, long ago in eternity, he hatched this plan that would change the course of history, and save us all from ourselves.
Wow! It’s unthinkable really. Some say it can’t be true, because they are unable to wrap their minds around it all. I say it’s accepting that we will never be able to comprehend it all that allows us to begin our faith journey in earnest. Believing without seeing; trusting without proof; that’s what faith is. The Holy Spirit steps in where our minds cannot even go.
My prayer today is that you open your mind and your heart to the workings of the Holy Spirit. And that you allow God to work in you as He imagined long ago in eternity.
Mary
