What is it that draws us to Christ? When he walked this earth, what was it that drew people close to him? We call him "Beautiful Jesus" but what is beautiful about Jesus? Beautiful is defined as "having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind; excellent of its kind; wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying". Isaiah 53 says there was really nothing "beautiful" about his appearance. "... he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
What do we run after in our lives? When you hear somebody say "I want that, I have to have it" it is generally because it is pleasing to them and holds some aspect of beauty that causes them to want it. Jesus was despised and rejected. He knew sorrow and grief. According to society today we should not desire him since, by our definition, he really was not beautiful. What drew me to Jesus? What draws anybody to Jesus? The beauty on the inside. His actions backed up his words. All of that flows from the inside, a beautiful heart, to the outside in words and actions. To me, when I look at the beauty on the inside, the appearance on the outside doesn't matter as much anymore. The beauty inside reflects on the outside. Why do people follow Christ? "He has become our griefs and carried our sorrows...".
And then we are compared to sheep. Have you ever been around sheep or read anything about them? ("A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" is a wonderful book!!!) Regardless of how fluffy and cute they may look, sheep can be pretty dumb and stubborn. And that is what we are compared to in the Bible :) Without an experienced and caring shepherd, they will not live very long. They run away, do their own thing, and do things that in the end do not turn out too well. My family once owned a few sheep. I do not remember how long we had had them but if I am correct, they did not last very long. Why that is, I am not sure but it could be because sheep will eat a lot of what a few preteens will attempt to feed it. Just sayin!!! Even through our stubbornness Christ remains faithful. He has protected us and saved us from the wrath our sins deserve and the dangers of evil in our lives. He gives us peace. He sacrificed his life for us.
The beauty on the inside of Jesus' heart and life won out against an unappealing appearance on the outside. I used to think that I would not be able to watch "The Passion of the Christ". I thought of it as more of a horror film of what I had done to Jesus. It is quite undesirable to watch innocence suffer. However, I watched it a few months back and it is truly beautiful. A portrayal of God's love for us poured out for sinners by the blood of his son. How beautiful that love truly is!!! When we understand the truth about beauty and where true beauty lies we will follow it. When beauty takes the form of self-sacrifice and bearing all for all as it did in Christ's life, then following is appealing and becomes a desire of the heart. THAT is a beautiful thing!!!
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"Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected -- a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all."
~*Isaiah 53:1-5 (NLT)*~
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