Abraham Lincoln was not an attractive man; in fact, people described him as “homely;” he had a number of facial defects. His own cabinet secretary called him a “long-armed ape.” And yet this “unsightly man,” as some called him, is widely regarded as the greatest president in the history of the United States. I read an article some time ago which said at if Lincoln were alive in America today, he would never be elected president, because he did not have an attractive personal appearance, which is one of the prerequisites for “leadership” today: you have to look good! That’s a sad commentary on our society, but I believe it’s accurate. Sadly, most people today seem to care much more about style than they do substance.

As we begin to delve into the verses of Isaiah 53, we find that the promised Messiah would be something like Abraham Lincoln: He was NOT what many would expect to find in a “Glorious King” coming down from heaven. In fact, it tells us that He would have “no stately appearance or majesty”, that he would be “despised and rejected by men.” Let’s look at what :2-3 tell us about how God’s Suffering Servant would come as a “Man of Sorrows.” 

I.  The Man of Sorrows: His Uniqueness 

“For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.” “Tender shoot” here refers to “a young plant, a sapling”. The “parched ground” is a “desert.” You can envision the picture here: there’s a desert, with nothing living and growing in it, but right in the midst of that desert, ONE plant that springs up: one root, with one shoot. That single plant in the desert would stand out in such contrast to all that was around it. That’s how Isaiah 53:2 says God’s servant, Jesus would be when He came: like a single precious plant, growing by all itself in the desert. 

The Bible often compares people’s spiritual lives to plants or land:

— In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, people’s hearts are compared to different kinds of soils. 

— We see it also in the parable of the vineyard: the owner looked for fruit, but he didn’t find any. 

— Hosea 9:16 talks about a people who were dead in their sins and says “their root is dried up.” 

So the “parched ground” here refers to the landscape of humanity. It represents how we are all spiritually dead, just like Ephesians 2 tells us: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” When God looks out over the spiritual landscape of Mankind, all He sees is dead, dry ground. There is no one righteous. We’re all like a desert, spiritually

The expression here, “He grew up before Him”, is literally, He grew up “before His face.” Jesus grew up on this earth before the very presence of God. The truth is, we ALL do. ALL of us spend every day under the very face of God. Everything we say, think and do, is continually before Him. 

Psalm 139 says, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. Before there is a word on my tongue, O Lord, You know it all! Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?” Every one of us lives our whole lives under the gaze of God, and as you can imagine, it condemns us. Can you stand before holy gaze of Him who has seen and knows everything you have ever done, every word You have ever spoken, every thought that crossed your mind, and everything You have ever done in “secret”, and think that you might be righteous before Him? You know you aren’t, don’t you? You know in your heart that you are just like everyone else — you’re part of the “desert” of sinful humanity; dead in your trespasses and sins. 

It’s just like Romans 3:10 says: “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” “NOT EVEN ONE”! THAT is the picture of humanity as a dry, barren desert in the sight of God.  When God looked at humanity, there was ”not even one” righteous man to stand before Him. 

But in the “barren desert” of sinful humanity, there “sprouted up” this ONE “plant,” “ONE tender shoot out of parched ground;” One perfect Son; this One who fully obeyed and pleased God. This Messiah would be completely different from everyone who had ever come before Him, or who would ever come after Him. He would be the ONE righteous “plant” in the landscape of sinful humanity. 

This is a picture of what is called a “resurrection plant”, which grows in the Sahara. In this vast desert landscape, everything is dead as far as you can  see — but this one little plant sprouted up in the middle of the dunes of sand. It’s quite striking in its contrast. Everything dry and dead around it — but here is this ONE living  plant!

That’s how it was when Jesus came.  In the barren “desert” of sinful, spiritually dead humanity, there came ONE plant; ONE “tender shoot;” ONE obedient Son, ONE upon Whom the Father could look and say: “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Everyone else was dead in their trespasses and sins before God, but this One was alive, and obedient, and perfect before Him. Whereas we had all sinned, He committed no sins. :9 expands on this; it says “He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” Jesus was perfect; He did nothing wrong. This is what Hebrews :15 tells us: “He was tempted in all things as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN.” He is that ONE oasis, that one “tender shoot” in the midst of lifeless humanity. 

Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. There is no one else like Him. Only He had no sin. Only He was pure and perfect before God. And this is why He is the only Savior and the only way to God. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This statement is very controversial today. One day I posted something on my Facebook page about how some believe that there are many ways to God, and a friend of mine from high school got on and posted about how narrow-minded it was for me to think that Jesus was the only way to God/ that He would take all the “good people” from every religion to heaven. 

That’s the way this world thinks. But what they don’t understand is what this passage and others in the Bible teach us about the uniqueness of Jesus. Mankind is NOT filled with all these “good” people who are keeping God’s laws. Someone said, “Show me all these good people!” Like Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart; I am pure from my sin’?”  No, as we just saw, we have all sinned; we’re all like a barren desert before God spiritually. Jesus is that one and only “tender shoot” in the desert, the ONE Righteous One before God. And that is why He is the only way to God: because He is the only One who qualified to be!

In Revelation 5:2 the Bible says:

“And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?’ (:3) And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. (:4) Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; (:4) and one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” 

Then the Bible goes on to say that all heaven cried out, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” Jesus, “the Lamb of God,” “the ROOT of David;” Isaiah 53’s “root out of parched ground;” HE is worthy; HE can take the book; HE can open it up! But ONLY HE! There is no one else like Him! Not in heaven, not on earth, not under the earth. Jesus is absolutely unique. He is the only One who is completely God, and completely Man, He is the only One who lived a perfect life; the only One qualified to be the sacrifice for our sins on the cross — and He was the only One in all history God the Father put His “stamp of approval” on, saying “THIS is My one-and-only beloved Son,” by raising Him from the dead!  

Only Jesus is worthy. There is no one else. The Apostles proclaimed in Acts 4:12, “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. There was only ONE “tender shoot” that arose from the “parched ground” of humanity, and that was Jesus. If you are going to be saved, you must come to God through Him. He is absolutely unique,

II. Man of Sorrows: His Rejection 

Next in this passage we find three Hebrew words “lo … lo … lo …” — “Not … not … not” in English. Here Isaiah 53 describes three things God’s Messiah was NOT: “He had NO stately form,” “NO majesty, that we should look upon Him, ‘NO appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

“Stately form” here in Hebrew means “splendor, ornament, majesty, dignity”. The Messiah did NOT come looking like a “glorious King”! 

— “Form” is the word used in Genesis (29:17) of Rachel, when it says she was “beautiful of form and face”.

— “Appearance” was the same Hebrew word used to describe Joseph in Genesis, when it says he was “handsome”, and was “coveted” (the same word “attracted” here) by Potiphar’s wife. 

— I Samuel 9:20 says Saul was head and shoulders above his brethren, and everyone was naturally attracted to him, and wanted him to be king. But the Bible says here in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah, when He came would NOT have that kind of form, beauty, or attraction.

Now, some have inferred from this that Jesus’ appearance was ugly; I don’t necessarily agree with that. He was a perfect Man. I can’t imagine that being ugly!  Rather I think the point is that He didn’t come to this world the way you might envision a Glorious King to come; He came humbly; He was born and laid in a cattle trough; He was announced to lowly shepherds and not in the imperial court of Rome; and He came to die a humiliating death, naked on a cross, “marred more than any man” as Isaiah 52:14 says. I think this means you wouldn’t have come to Jesus for His appearance, for His glitz, for His “coolness.” Jesus was not  “attractive” or “cool” in the ways that many worldly people are. He didn’t “market” Himself the way a “successful” worldly person would. Jesus was not about appearance. He was NOT all these attractive, outward things.

This has some implications for those of us who would be His disciples:

1) This means that if we are followers of Jesus, we are not going to be seen as “cool” by the world. A few years ago, there was a certain Christian “celebrity” who was being called a “rock star” by some. One of the reasons they called him that was because he actually went “on tour” and they “sold tickets” to his speaking events — like you would a “rock star.” People were saying, “This guy is really ‘cool’!’ Unfortunately, despite his “rock star” status, his theology didn’t match up to the Bible, and he ended up leading many people away from Biblical faith.

I’ll be honest with you: one of the big problems of American Christianity is that we keep elevating men to the status of “rock stars” in church and ministry, when Christianity is not about making “rock stars” out of people. Jesus was not a “rock star.” Isaiah says He was not “cool” in the ways of the world — and we need to realize, we can’t be followers of Jesus and also be “cool” to the world. 

Unfortunately, for the last generation or so, American Christians have made a big attempt to be the “cool Christian”: “Let’s be Christian, but let’s show the world we can also be really ‘cool’ too.” That is the basic ministry philosophy of many Christians and churches today: “We’ll be the ‘cool Christian;’ we’ll be the ‘cool church.” But that’s also very dangerous. Usually what that ends up meaning is that you try to have one foot in Jesus’ camp and one foot in the world’s camp — and that won’t work. Some of us need to decide which god we are really going to serve: are you going to serve the world, or are you going to serve Jesus?  Jesus was not “cool” in the eyes of the world, and if you truly follow Him, you will not be revered by the world either. Jesus said if the world hated Him, we can expect they will hate us too. So we need to make a choice: do we want everybody to think that we are “cool”, or do we want to follow Jesus? You can’t do both. If the single most important thing in the world for you is to be seen as “cool,” or if you are such a “people pleaser” that you can’t take any rejection by the world, you are not going to be able to follow Jesus. “He had no stately form or appearance;” He had no majesty that people should be attracted to Him. So if what you really care about is being liked by everyone, then like the Rich Young Ruler, you’re gonna have to “go away sorrowful” from Jesus. That’s the choice you have to make. But we have got to get past this idea of being “cool.” Jesus was NOT attractive, He was NOT majestic, He did NOT have form; He was not “cool”; and if you follow Him in a genuine, biblical way, you will not be seen as “cool” by the world either. 

2) This has implications for us as a church too. It means that as a church we are not to be all about “style” and not substance. Too many churches have fallen into the same mindset as the world, that the most important thing is for us to look good. Let’s coordinate our outfits, let’s get the facilities looking just right, let’s come across like a “Fortune 500” company, with all the trappings and appearance of worldly success. This is exactly what Jesus did NOT do; He did not “market” Himself in a worldly way. In John 7, Jesus’ brothers told Him, “Go into Judea, that Your disciples may see what You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. Show Yourself to the world.” They were saying “put Yourself out there, Jesus.” Get the publicity train going. But Jesus rejected that. He did end up going to the Feast, but He did it privately, not with a “PR/media blitz”. Jesus was NOT all about appearance and marketing Himself to the world. And we need to take our cue as a church from Him.

Now, I am not saying that we can’t look nice or dress stylishly, or that we shouldn’t make our facilities attractive, or put word out on our website or social media.  I AM saying that our primary thrust, and our hope and trust, is not in “marketing” appearance is to the world. Our church should not just be about appearance. Our church should be about substance: and that substance is the message of the Bible, that there is One God, and the one way to Him is through the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who was crucified for our sins. That is the substance. And that substance is NOT “cool” with the world — but that’s what we must hold to, as faithful followers of Him who had “no stately form or appearance” before men.  

III.  Man of Sorrows: His Suffering

:3 “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

We see more of this at the end of Isaiah 52, which is actually an introduction/part of this last of Isaiah’s “Servant Songs.” Verse 14 says of Him: “Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”

So Isaiah 52-53 tells us the Servant would be “marred more than any man;” that He would be despised and rejected, a Man of sorrows.” That is how He would be treated. 

The word “despised” here was used of how King David’s wife Michal saw David praising God in an unreserved way, and it says she “despised” him in her heart. And it’s notable that the same Hebrew word for “despised” is used twice here in this verse. Usually, in Hebrew parallelism, they will say something one way, and then say it in a slightly different way the second time. But here, it uses the exact SAME word twice. The Bible is really emphasizing here just how despised Jesus was. 

And it says “We did not esteem Him” — in other words, we didn’t think He was anything. Often people “evaluate” others as to whether they think they are really “worthwhile” or not.

Some time ago there was a woman at a big gathering where there were a lot of celebrities in the crowd, and this woman said to one man who was standing beside her: “Are you somebody?” In other words, are you special? Are you worth my time and attention?

The Bible says here when the Messiah would come, the world would not look at Him and think he was “anybody.” They would not “esteem” Him.

The word “sorrows” here means “pains.” Job 2:13 says that Job’s friends at first didn’t say anything to him when they saw him, “for they saw that his pain was very great.” It refers to a pain that’s so great it leaves you speechless. 

So Isaiah begins to describe for us here what Jesus would endure for us when He came to save us: He was despised by the world; He was not esteemed as anything; He bore unspeakable pain; as 52:14 says, “He was marred more than any man.” All these verses tell us that Jesus came to suffer. He didn’t come to earth this first time to reign; to be well-received; or adored. He came specifically to suffer. 

Jesus told His disciples that: 

— We saw in our Sunday school lesson in Mark 8:31 how Jesus:  “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”  At least 3 times He told them in advance how He would suffer at the hands of men, be crucified, and then rise again.

— In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” 

Repeatedly Jesus said He came to earth not to reign, but specifically to be mistreated; to suffer, to die. 

WHY? Why would you purposefully go somewhere, where you knew you would suffer? He didn’t do it just because He wanted to suffer; He did it in order to save us. Matthew 20:28 says He did it specifically to “give His life a ransom for many.” He suffered as the “ransom,” as the payment for our sins. I Peter 2:24 says “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” Jesus came to suffer, so that we could be forgiven and saved. 

Jesus’ suffering was the cost of our salvation. In fact, Isaiah 53 goes on to say that this “tender shoot” that :2 talked about would be “crushed” in :10, so that He could be a “guilt offering.” A “guilt offering” was an offering for sin. Jesus came to be the offering that paid for our sins.

This is quite a picture that Isaiah 53 gives us: the “tender shoot,” the ONE righteous “plant” of :2, would be “crushed” so that we might be saved.  Do you know how many perfumes are made? They take flower petals, and they crush them, to release the distinctive oils that contain their fragrance. The flower has to be crushed in order to give us that fragrance.

In the same way, Jesus, this unique, tender plant of God, the only pure and perfect One — had to be crushed, that His blood, being poured out, would be the “fragrant guilt offering,” the “ransom” that would be acceptable to God to forgive our sins and save us. Jesus came as the “Man of Sorrows” to suffer — to be “crushed” bearing our sins, so that we might believe in Him and be saved. 

This is the picture Isaiah 53 gives us of the Messiah. Just like Abraham Lincoln, Jesus did not have the kind of appearance or the PR team to be a 21st Century media candidate for president. But that’s not what He came for. He came to suffer, so that He could save everyone who would believe in Him; everyone who would say, I don’t care what the world says; I don’t care if they reject me; I don’t care if I’m seen as “cool” or not; I believe in Him, and I am going to commit my life to Jesus, the one and only, perfect Son of God, who came to be “crushed” for me on the cross.

The world will reject you, just like they rejected Him, but you will take this “Man of Sorrows” as YOUR Suffering Servant, and YOUR Glorious King? 

INVITATION

— If you are a follower of Jesus, pray about what God has spoken to your heart about in His word this morning. Have you cared too much about what the world thinks? Have you been trying to keep one foot in the world’s camp, and one foot in heaven? Are you trying to be the “cool Christian” who doesn’t make anyone unhappy? You can’t sit on the fence. Jesus has called you to follow Him. Maybe some of us need to recommit ourselves to Him this morning.

— Maybe you have a friend/loved who needs to get off the fence and give their life to Jesus today. Spend this invitation time praying for them.

— Or maybe it’s YOU God’s speaking to: that today you need to finally give your life to Jesus as YOUR Lord & King …