The following is to be delivered at a worship service and feeding for the poor in West Philadelphia on August 20, 2010:
“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised…” (Isa. 53:2-3, ESV).
The Lord Jesus Christ was One who the Scripture describes as being “rejected by men.” Nothing about His appearance attracted people to Him, or made people desire to be with Him. He was not considered to be of any special importance.
He was “a man of sorrows” who was thoroughly “acquainted with grief.” Men “hid their faces from Him” and considered him despicable. People did not even consider Him to be “worthy of being looked at,” and they turned and hid their faces from Him as if He was “something detestable.”[1]
In our society, to be poor or without means invites the scorn and contempt and judgment of others. It invites rejection.
Like with the Lord Jesus, there is often little about the poor that makes people desire to be with them. And as with the Lord Jesus, the poor are often not considered to be of any special importance. The poor are largely “despised and rejected by men,” even by many in the church.
What a comfort it is to know that our Savior understands what it means to be rejected and looked down upon and avoided.
In Jesus’ day, personal wealth and the possession of material things was considered to be a sign of the blessing of God. If you were poor, you were largely considered to be under the curse of God. This caused people to ignore and reject the poor in many ways. In America today, it appears that this attitude has changed little.
However, what does Jesus think of this belief? For our standard for measuring truth is not what our wicked culture thinks, nor what the majority of people may believe to be true, but what the Christ of the Bible teaches.
Mark 10:23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
The Lord Jesus overturns the misconceptions of the culture of His time, and ours. He preaches that wealth and an abundance of material possessions actually make it more difficult for a person to embrace Christ.
This teaching blew the minds of those who heard it. The Holy Spirit tells us that the disciples were “amazed” and “exceedingly astonished” to hear such a teaching. They thought that if the rich were excluded from salvation, then it was impossible that any could be saved! Such a wicked belief displays how little they thought of the poor, and of their standing with God.
Standing in stark contrast to this attitude is the Lord Jesus, the Friend and Savior of the poor; the One who teaches, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31).
The Lord Jesus, like the poor, was “despised and rejected by men” (Isa. 53:3). We do not have a Savior “who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
And that last part of Hebrews 4:15 is the key: though He was tempted, He was “without sin.” You see, it was Jesus Christ, the rejected One, who accomplished what we all have failed to do: live a life perfectly pleasing to God in every way at all times.
This is the only kind of life that is acceptable in God’s sight: a sinless one. Because of this fact, if we are honest with ourselves, we understand that this puts us in a very bad position: under the judgment of a holy God for our sin and rebellion against Him.
Because of this fact, we understand that we need someone to rescue us from the wrath of God. We need a substitute to stand in our place and take the punishment for sin that we deserve, so that we may go free.
This is what happened when the “man of sorrows” took to the cross and received the punishment for sin upon His own head, dying the death that we rebels deserved. Three days later, He rose from the grave in triumph, defeating death and the powers of darkness, proving that He is God’s own Son, and the only Savior of mankind.
If you repent from your sin and place your trust in the Risen Son, though you may be despised and rejected by men, you will receive the adoption into God’s family through the new birth.
To those who choose to forsake all and follow Jesus, He says: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
Heb. 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://ccel.wheaton.edu, Version 1.7, Accordance Bible Software 8.4.7 (July 2010), Oak Tree Software, Inc.
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