“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)
Because of all the poor people? The indigent and infirmed? Perhaps because the children of Israel had once again sinned so mightily against the Lord God that He had sent the Romans to be their newest taskmasters. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2)
Our opening verse does not speak of a happy, carefree childhood and young adult life before the Lord’s ministry began, but upon a man who was troubled, sorrows and grief do not a happy life make. Perhaps many in His hometown saw Him as morose and withdrawn most of the time, we don’t know, but I do not believe that our Savior was not like any other man born, He is God. “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.” (Prov. 8:27)
He knew who He was from the womb, He had nothing revealed to Him as He grew older, He always knew why He was here, to seek the lost, to die for the sins of the world. But He was not sorrowful and filled with grief at the notion of losing His mortal life. “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 10:18)
In part it may have been because of the sadness of the days He chose to be born in, but He is God, He has watched mankind since Adam and Eve, nothing has ever escaped His eye. I offer one, perhaps two points of conjecture, neither can be verified in the Scriptures, but, at least in as much as the human mind can contemplate the infinite mind of God, they seem viable to this short discussion.
The first would be in line with Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” To spend those years walking across the whole land of Israel, the land where He sent so many prophets to speak the truths of God to the children of Israel, and then to have those truths of Himself and the reason He came cast back in His face as useless would not only cause great frustration, but unequaled sorrow and grief. To offer the greatest of all loves, love eternal asking nothing in return, loving those who hate you. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Love rarely returned is a forlorn life, ask many a devoted husband or endearing wife who is treated as commonplace by their spouse, ask a child who relishes above all else the time, compassion and love of a father who is always too busy. I cannot say if this was the cause for the truth of that verse in Isaiah, but I know that feeling and so do you, and there is no joy in it, only great sorrow and grief.
But I offer a second point of contemplation here, once again only a point of conjecture, for that is all we have when the Word of God is silent at this time of the creation. “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) Eternity past, eternity present, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” (Prov. 8:30)
Except for that one moment.
Have you ever had someone die that you loved beyond all measure, do you remember that moment when you truly came to the realization that they were never coming back again? Multiply that times infinity, think on the moment when the Father, for the first and only time ever turned His back on the Son. An entire lifetime of sorrow and grief because of the knowledge of that one impending moment.
“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matt. 26:39)
If you have been born again, if Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life, you will never know this sorrow, your grief, no matter how deep the blade of it pierces your heart, can never be compared to that one moment in time. That is the price that was paid for you.
Please, never forget that.
