had money to burn.   Before the high school reunion, she went to the

plastic surgeon.  She got a nose job, eyelid and chin tucks, and had her wrinkles removed.  She looked years younger and like another woman.  But, she didn’t enjoy the reunion.  No one recognized her.

Jesus didn’t look like a movie star or political leader.  He was plain.  Isaiah 53:2 (ESV) says, “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”

Through the prophet Samuel, God anointed David to be the future king.

Yet, David was the least likely of the sons of Jesse.  1 Samuel 16:7 explains that “… the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."  Satan knows how easily mankind is impressed by appearances.  Therefore, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light when he is actually the ultimate angel of darkness (2 Corinthians 11:14). 

The most important beauty that God gives is internal.  It is the glow of love in our hearts that radiates from our faces.  Isaiah 61:10 tells us that God adorns His Messiah with robes of salvation and righteousness.  In Christ, we are covered by His righteousness and receive the salvation he won for us.  The plainest man or woman who is filled with the love of God radiates the beauty of God.  Saint Peter advises women to (1 Peter 3:4): “… let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.”

But, Jesus Christ was not just plain.  His ministry to save us led to the cross -- its ugliness and shame.  He took your sin and my sin to the cross.  He took all of our infirmity and darkness and evil onto His body.  The Roman soldiers beat Jesus to a pulp.  Isaiah 53:3-4 says, “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, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

The crowd looking at Jesus on the cross thought that God had rejected Him.  It appeared that way.  And, in the sense that He bore God’s wrath for sin on His body, He was forsaken.  He died.  The sky went dark.  All was lost, so it appeared.  More later.

Pastor Raymond Van Buskirk, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Baytown, TX www.rlcbaytown.org