Text: Isaiah 53:1-3
Title: Who would have ever thought?
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 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. 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.” (Isaiah 53:1-3)
If we could summarize our text today in one phrase surely it would be the phrase “who would have ever thought”?
“Who would have ever thought” is surely the phrase we would use to summarize our text today because it is a phrase we all like to use to express our shock and utter amazement when the totally unexpected happens.
Isaiah 53:1-3 is all about the shock and utter amazement that people will express after they discover that all this time Jesus was so much more than they ever thought him to be.
Isaiah even questions in verse 1 if anyone will even believe the message about Jesus because so great will be their shock and amazement.
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
I think we have the image that it must have been obvious to everyone who knew Jesus growing up that he was marked as special.
We don’t know what Jesus looked like when he walked this earth but we naturally presume Jesus looked nothing like us!
I always imagined it would have been easy to pick Jesus out in his class photograph because he would have been the only one with a halo around his head.
But our scripture tells us a different story about the growing up years of Jesus.
Our scripture passage gives us a description of Jesus that would cause anyone who knew him to say in shock and amazement, “who would have ever thought?”
Jesus was like a tender shoot.
Jesus was like a root out of dry ground.
Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him.
Jesus had nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
Jesus was despised and rejected by men.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Jesus was like one from whom men hide their faces.
Jesus was despised, and we esteemed him not.
In other words the writer of Isaiah 53 is saying to us “who would have ever thought”
Hopefully as we study this passage a number of questions are appearing in your mind.
The big question is “Why did Jesus choose to grow up this way?”
He did not have to grow up this way.
If you were God would you allow yourself to be so totally disguised that people who you created treated you worse than a nobody?
If it was I instead of Jesus then God help the first person that messed with me.
So why did Jesus do it?
I want to share a number of reasons why I think he did it?
Reason #1
So Jesus could say to you and I, “I know how you feel.”
“ I know what it feels like to grow up rejected.” I know what it feels like to be full of sorrow.”” I know what it feels like to be familiar with suffering.” ”I know what it feels like to be despised by others.” “I know what it feels like to be rejected.” “ I know what it feels like not to be esteemed.”
Jesus is not completely different from us as we might once have thought; rather he is more like us than we will ever know.
Who would have ever thought that Jesus would allow himself to grow up this way?
Reason #2
He did it to demonstrate his love for you and I.
Jesus says to every person here today “Even though you once rejected me I love you.Even though you hide from me and despise me I still love you.I’m still willing to leave heaven, give up my beauty, give up my majesty, and give up the worship of millions and millions of angels, because I love you too much.
Reason #3
So we can see how sinful we really are.
Our greatest sins are not the ones we do to others. Our greatest sins are the ones we do to Jesus.
Our scripture text for today lists some of the sins we do to Jesus.When we find ourselves no longer attracted to Jesus.When there is nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.Whenever we find ourselves despising and rejecting him.Whenever we cause him sorrow.Whenever we find ourselves hiding our faces from him.When we esteem him not.
The people who opposed Jesus are still around.
Reason #4
Why did Jesus do it? He did it so that he could die for our sins and reconcile us back to God.
This is something that we will get into in greater detail next Sunday.
“Who would have ever thought”
“Who would have ever thought that Jesus would do this for me”?
The purpose of this sermon today is to shock and amaze us. To wake us up to a new appreciation for Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.
To those who do not yet believe in Jesus I ask you what more could he do to show you how much he loves you?
To those of you who walk afar off I ask you want more could he do to show you how much he loves you?
To those of us who are not on fire for God I ask us what more could he do to show us how much he loves us?
