NO BEAUTY!

 

Thursday, April 21, 2022

 

NO BEAUTY!

 

Isa 53:1-6

53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 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.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 

          Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, in the Hebrew, means “a shoot” or “a sprout.” I find that interesting in light of verse 2 above. The seed of the woman, the tender plant and root out of a dry ground, grew up in a town whose name means sprout. How intricate is the Lord in communicating His mind to us?

 

          Jesus was ordinary! In all the artwork that depicts Him there is an attempt to make him stand out visually. He stands taller, more physically perfect, and handsome than any others in the crowd. We can pick out Jesus in any painting or film we see. Often there is a halo of glory around his sweet head. Even as an infant on the straw he is depicted as glowing, and his tiny hand poised in that strange blessing posture of thumb touching finger. But Isaiah says that we probably would not be able to pick him out of a crowd. He was ordinary. Isaiah does not use the word ugly, but he rejects the word “beauty.”

 

          There is a spurious letter by Publius Lentulus written to Emperor Tiberius that describes the beauty of Jesus, but it is generally rejected. No, I think Jesus was very ordinary. Most of us are a bit uncomfortable in the presence of great beauty as if we have no right to share the same space with one whose features are so perfect and fair. I think Jesus was ordinary.

 

Phil 2:6-8

6 [HE], being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

 

Thank you, Jesus that you were made like me so that I might be made like you! AMEN