Christ Despised # 1

Christ Despised # 1

"He is despised and rejected by men" (Isaiah 53:3). For the special benefit of young preachers, we propose to sermonize this text, though in as simple and homely a manner as possible, trusting that it may please the Lord to speak through it to some unsaved readers, for we dare not assume that all who take this article have really been born again.

Our text forms part of one of the Messianic predictions, in which God made know long beforehand the treatment which His Son would receive when He became incarnate.

The prophecy of Isaiah was in the hands of the Jews seven hundred years before the Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem - yet so exactly did it describe what befell Him, that it might well have been written by one of the Apostles. Therein is supplied one of the incontrovertible proofs of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, for only One who knew the end from the beginning, could have thus written history beforehand.

It might well have been supposed that the advent to earth of such a One as the Lord of Glory, would meet with a warm welcome and reverent reception, the more so in view of His appearing in human form, going about doing good. Since He came not to judge - but to save; since His mission was one of grace and mercy, since He ministered to the needy and healed the sick - will not men gladly receive Him? Many would naturally think so - but in so thinking they overlook the fact that the Lord Jesus is "the Holy One," and none but those who have the principle of holiness in their hearts, can appreciate ineffable Purity. Such an assumption as the one we have just mentioned, ignores the solemn fact of human depravity - the heart of fallen man is "desperately wicked" (Jere. 17:9). How can the Holy One appear attractive to those who are full of sin? Nothing so clearly evidences the condition of the human heart, and so solemnly demonstrates its corruption, as its attitude toward the precious Saviour. 

There is much recorded against man in the Old Testament Scriptures, as for example in Psalm 14:1-4; yet dark as is the picture there drawn of fallen human nature, it fades into insignificance before what the New Testament sets before us. "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7), and never was this so frightfully patent, as when Jesus was manifested in flesh. "If I had not come," declared Christ, "and spoken unto them, they had not had sin - but now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15:22). The appearing of Christ has fully exposed man, bringing to light as nothing else ever has - the desperate wickedness of his heart!

Now let us ask and supply answer to three questions - Who was, and still is, "despised and rejected by men?" Why is He so grievously slighted? In what way is He scorned? Who was so unwelcome here?

We answer, first, the One who pressed upon men the absolute sovereignty of God. Few things are so distasteful to the proud human heart, as the truth that God does as He pleases, without in any ways consulting with the creature; that He dispenses His favors entirely according to His imperial will. Fallen man has no claims upon Him, is destitute of any merit, and can do nothing whatever to win God's esteem. Fallen man is a spiritual pauper, entirely dependent upon Divine charity, and in the bestowal of His mercies God is regulated by nothing but His own "good pleasure." "Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with My own?" (Matt. 20:15). is His own unanswerable challenge - yet, as the context there shows, man wickedly murmurs against this.

Now the Lord Jesus came here to glorify His Father, and therefore we find Him maintaining His crown-rights and emphasizing His sovereignty. In His first message, in the Capernaum synagogue, He pointed out that though there were many widows in Israel during the days of Elijah, when there was a great famine throughout all the land, unto none of them was the Prophet sent, except unto one at Zarephath. And that though there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, none of them were healed - yet distinguishing mercy was shown unto Naaman the Syrian. The sequel was, "When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They got up, drove Him out of town, and brought Him to the edge of the hill their town was built on, intending to hurl Him over the cliff!" (Luke 4:28, 29). For pressing the truth of God's absolute sovereignty, Christ was "despised and rejected by men." Who was so unwelcome here?

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)