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 mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Isa. 53:1-4
Holy and gracious Jesus, you are the “tender shoot” of Isaiah’s vision—the righteous root which broke through the dry ground in the fallow field of our fallen universe. We stand in awe as we consider the wonder of your incarnation. We fall on our faces as we behold the weakness of your incarnation. Who could have conceived of a manger as the place where God would plant you—the promised Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, the Savior of the world? Who would have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that the humble estate of a stable would become the garden of God’s glory and grace?
Yet, thirty-three years later, something much more inconceivable (to us) happened. You, who created the very category of beauty—you who are quintessential beauty, became the one with “no beauty,” for us. From the greenhouse of the stable you journeyed to the death place of your cross. The bouquet of beauty came under the curse of God.
Quite literally, you became everything ugly and vile about our sin, my sin. You became sin for us that in you we might be become the very righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:17-21). You who shared the eternal delight of the Godhead and the adoration and esteem of angels, became the despised and rejected one for us, for me. You who are the fountain of pleasures—whose laughter fills heaven, whose joy is our strength, you became the man of sorrows for us, for me. Be still me soul… ponder and treasure, consider and worship…
And though you didn’t remain a tender shoot, you have retained all tenderness. Lord Jesus, no one is as familiar with our pain and suffering as you are. In taking up your cross, you took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. You have exhausted our guilt and taken our shame. What a kind and caring Savior you are.
Lord Jesus, if we could make progress in only one thing this Advent season, may it be to have a much greater esteem for you; for in the gospel you have demonstrated your measureless esteem for us, for me… wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles, grace upon grace upon grace…
Intensify our love for you, Jesus—restore us to our first love passion and delight. We only love you because you first loved us, and gave yourself as an atoning and propitiating sacrifice for our sin. How we praise you for the majesty of your manger and the mercy of your cross. So very Amen we pray, in your matchless name and irresistible grace.