We all tend to "judge a book by it's cover". In other words we follow the external, rather than the internal. How the messenger looks will tell how acceptable the message will be. Have you ever wondered why everyone on television and movies are attractive? Even the extras.
This prophecy given to Isaiah in this passage spoke of the coming Messiah, the One we know today as Jesus Christ. It describes our Lord in a way that is very unfamiliar, or even unacceptable, for a God or man that we will follow and obey.
He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. In orher words he didn't look like a king or prince.
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He wasn't a good looking guy.
And because of all that he went through, all the persecution and eventually his death on the cross, he was someone despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and grief, and he was not esteemed.
How far this description of our Savior from the way he is depicted in statues and pictures! This is the problem with human nature - it is almost unacceptable that someone important or popular will be described in the way Isaiah did, more especially our God! And so we come up with our own description, one more acceptable to our senses, and wala - out comes the good looking and popular version of Jesus Christ.
The problem is, we don't just do this with statues and pictures of Jesus. We also do this with Christianity. The Christ, and His teachings, that we want are those that make Him popular, acceptable..."handsome" if you will accept that description. And so people invent a Christianity that is so far from how God described it in His word. Gone is the worship of a God who is holy, who requires holiness from His disciples. The ears of many Christians today reject teachings of dying to self, contentment, or the prioritizing of the kingdom and His will. We follow the christ or christianity that is acceptable, good looking, to our senses.
The Christ, and Christianity, that people desire today has to be good looking, acceptable. But that is not, and has never been, our Lord's intent - to be popular and acceptable. All He wanted, and still wants, is that He is worshipped, exalted and glorified, no matter what He asks or desires from us. It has never been about looks, but about love and obedience to a Savior and Lord who loved us first by dying for our sins.
What kind of Christ, of Christianity, are you following today?
