Untitled Sermon (10)
SUFFERING FROM REJECTION
SUFFERING FROM REJECTION
Obedience to suffering extracts an incredible price in social esteem from the Servant of the Lord. The depth of His social suffering goes beyond belief, and so much so that the prophet asks, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (v. 1). The rhetorical question answers itself. No one can believe that the Servant grew up from such lowly beginnings that His background is likened to a “tender plant” or a young shoot that is a nuisance and usually cut off before maturity. Also, like a “root out of dry ground,” His background is so blighted that no one can believe that He would be the seed of royal blood in the lineage of Jesse and David (v. 2).
All of the romance that time and distance have created around the beginnings and background of Jesus get a strong dose of reality in the description of the Servant as a “young shoot” and an “impoverished root.” Some scholars suggest that Jesus’ birth to the virgin Mary scandalized the family and permanently scarred His name. Despite Joseph’s gracious act of love to marry the pregnant woman and give her child a name, Jesus never lost the label as the illegitimate son of Mary. Such a “young shoot” would never stand a chance for social recognition. Furthermore, the “impoverished root” may speak more than just the humble beginnings of Jesus in the wretched little town of Nazareth. His designation as a carpenter may be interpreted either as the honorable profession of a craftsman or the abased position of a handyman who does odd jobs around town. Isaiah’s description of the background of the Servant comes closest to a shameful birth and an abased position.
Physical features, even in Jesus’ time, influenced social esteem. When beautiful people reveal their emotional insecurities or their moral emptiness, we are surprised because we equate beauty with esteem. Ugly people live with the opposite reputation. Our first reaction to a disfigured face is withdrawal. Our second reaction is to devalue the worth of that person on our scale of esteem. Abraham Lincoln suffered from his ugliness throughout his lifetime and even during his tenure as President. Those who knew him, however, saw past the ugliness and through the gentleness of the eyes into the compassion of his heart. At one time, Lincoln is reputed to have responded to a question about his ugliness by saying, “The face you have before forty you cannot help, but the face you have after forty you deserve.”
The Servant will not have the advantage of time to communicate the beauty of His person and His personality. To the end of His life, He will know the sorrow and the grief of being “despised and rejected by men” (v. 3). Like the shock of the hideous face behind the half mask of the Phantom of the Opera, those who see the face of the Servant will hide their eyes, and without ever knowing the person behind the mask, they will write him off as inhuman. The “sorrow and grief” that the Servant felt from hidden eyes and debasing glares meant that He entertained no masochistic pleasure in His rejection. Just the opposite. With a verve for living, a desire for friends, and a wish for good will, the “sorrows” and “grief” of the Servant come because of His total rejection.