Jesus was undesirable

JESUS WAS UNDESIRABLE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah53:3 3He was despisedand rejected by
mankind, a man of suffering, and familiarwith pain.
Like one from whom peoplehide their faces he was
despised, and we held him in low esteem.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The RejectedSaviour
Isaiah53:3
W.M. Statham
He is desvisedand rejectedof men; a Man of sorrows, andacquainted with
grief. He! Who? The incarnate Lord, who has grown up in childhood as a
"tender plant;" who is the one "living root," while all others are the dry soil
of a decrepit and degenerate humanity.
I. THIS REVEALS TO US WHAT THE HEBREW CHURCH WAS. Christ
was the "touchstone" ofthat Church. Its conduct to him made manifest to
what a condition they had come. Think of the contrast. Pharisaismwas
triumphant - Christ was despised. The outward, the formal, the ritual, was
preferred before the holy, the inward, and the spiritual. Christ was
"rejected." Theyhad the first opportunity of welcoming the "Lord from
heaven." "To the Jew first." How learned men may be in tradition! how well

acquainted with the 'Mishna' and the 'Gemara,'and yet know ail of ancient
revelation exceptits meaning! The greatgates ofprophecy open wide to lot
the true King through; and then treat him as a Pretender, and crownhim
with thorns.
II. THIS REVEALS TO US WHAT CHRIST WAS ON THE HUMAN SIDE.
"A Man of sorrows."Think of his exquisite moral sensitivenessin a world of
sin. Think of his tender human sympathies in a world of sorrow. "Acquainted
with grief." Not in one specialform, but in all its spheres, that he might be a
Brother born for adversity. Acquainted with it. So that he had daily
fellowship with it; not passing through its transient experiences, but familiar
with it as the companion of his life. - W.M.S.
Biblical Illustrator
He is despisedand rejectedof men.
Isaiah53:3-7
The mean appearance ofthe Redeemerforetold

T. Sherlock, D.D.
I. THE WISDOM AND GOODNESSOF GOD IN DETERMININGTO
SEND HIS SON INTO THE WORLD IN A STATE OF POVERTYAND
AFFLICTION.
1. With regardto His being a teacher, His sufferings set Him above the reach
of suspicions. What ends could He have to serve by His doctrine, who met
with nothing but misery and affliction, as the rewardof His labour?
2. With regardto our Lord's being an example of holiness and obedience set
before us for our instruction and imitation. His sufferings render the pattern
perfect, and show His virtues in their truest lustre, and at the same time
silence the pleas which laziness or self-love would otherwise have suggested.
3. With regardto His Divine mission. His sufferings were an evident token
that the hand of God was with Him. He only can produce strength out of
weakness,and knows how to confound the mighty things of the world by
things which are of no account. Add to this the evidence of prophecy, which is
so much the strongerby how much the weakerChrist was:so admirably has
the wisdomof God displayed itself in this mystery of faith.
II. THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECYCONCERNING THE MEAN
APPEARANCE OUR LORD WAS TO MAKE.
III. THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE WE HAVE FOR THE COMPLETION
OF THESE PROPHECIES.
(T. Sherlock, D.D.)
Christ despisedand rejectedof men
R. Walker.
I. IN WHAT RESPECTSIT MAY STILL BE SAID THAT CHRIST IS
DESPISEDAND REJECTED OF MEN.

1. Men may be said to despise Christ when they do not receive Him as their
alone Saviour, the true and only way to the Father.
2. When they practically deny His authority by breaking His Commandments.
3. When they do not give Him the chief room in their hearts, nor prefer Him
in their choice to everything else.
4. When they do not publicly, confess Him before men.
II. THE CAUSES OF THIS CONTEMPT.
1. The main cause is a secretunbelief.
2. Love of this would.
3. Ignorance oftheir owncondition.
4. An opinion that they may obtain His aid at what time soeverthey shall
choose to ask it.
III. THE MALIGNITY OF THIS SIN.
1. To despise and rejectsuch a Saviour, is the blackestingratitude that can
possibly be imagined.
2. Your ingratitude is heightened by the most insolent contempt both of the
wisdom and goodnessofGod.
3. By despising and rejecting Christ, you openly proclaim war againstthe
MostHigh, and bid Him defiance.
(R. Walker.)
Designedand rejected
J. Higgins.
I. CHRIST WAS AN OBJECTOF SCORN AND CONTEMPT.
1. He was despisedas an impostor.

2. Despisedin His teachings.
3. In his work.
4. In His claims to a righteous judgment at the national tribunal.
II. NOT ONLY WAS JESUS AN OBJECT OF CONTEMPTAND SCORN
BUT OF ABSOLUTE REJECTION. If the word had read "neglected," —
deserted, coldly passedby — this would have revealedan indifference that
would have coveredHis nation and age with reproach, and would have stood
out a lasting monument of their base ingratitude. But here is a word
conveying the idea of the most inveterate and active hatred. But why this
active hostility to Christ?
(J. Higgins.)
Despisedand rejectedof men
S. H. Tindall.
In the Gospelwe see this rejectionin actualoccurrence.
I. HE WAS DESPISED AND REJECTEDBY THE WORLDLY-MINDED
(John 6). Following Christ for the sake of bread may lead to much
enthusiastic and self-denying exertion. Here, the very meanestview of Christ
is preferred to those lofty and spiritual truths by which He tried to allure and
save their souls. In his presence, before His face, while listening to His voice,
and with the splendour of the miracle before them — all are passedby for the
bread. Is not this the essenceofworldly-mindedness? Christianity is the
religion of many, not for the sake ofthe Lord Himself, nor His gracious
words, nor even His miracles, but for the bread, for reputation's sake, and
socialcharacterandrespectability.
II. HE WAS DESPISEDAND REJECTED BYTHE RATIONALIST
(Matthew 13:54-57). It was in "His own country." There men thought they
knew Him; His family had long dwelt there. Parents, brothers, sisters were all
familiarly known— all, down to their very trade: "Is not this the carpenter?"

The facts of the case,as the rationalist is so fond of saying, were all clearly
apprehended, and stoodforth in their true dimensions. "Whence hath this
man this wisdom and these mighty works?" Is it real? is it not on the face of it
absurd, this mere carpenter's son? This is the inmost spirit of rationalism. It
rejects everything above the level of visible and tangible fact, everything that
cannot be weighedand measured, everything spiritual in Scripture doctrine
and supernatural in Scripture history.
III. HE IS DESPISEDAND REJECTED BYTHE ECCLESIASTIC
(Matthew 21:15-23). The ecclesiasticaltemperis not found solely or chiefly
amongstthose who are ecclesiasticsby profession. The religious spirit may be
crushed — indeed, has often been; rigid and severe forms may take the place
of the easyand gracefulmotions of vital Christianity. "This" is "the rejection
of Christ in the freedom by which His Holy Spirit "distributes to every man
severallyas He will."
IV. HE IS DESPISEDAND REJECTED BYMEN OF BRUTE FORCE
(Luke 23:11). To some the tenderness of the Gospelreligion is an offence.
Humanity is a peculiarly Christian virtue, and meeknessand resignation. The
calm tranquillity of meditation, the tearful eye of compassion, the sublime
courage ofpatience, the dating heroism of forgiveness, excite no sympathy or
admiration in some breasts. Theirs is the rejectionof Christ; through a false
manliness.
V. CHRIST IS DESPISED AND REJECTEDBYHIS OWN (John 1:11).
Some, from a natural sweetness andamiability of disposition, seemin a
certain degree adaptedto be Christians. The restraining effects ofhome
discipline and generous educationhave restrained them from open
transgression. Yet their rejectionof Christ as a Saviour from sin is often most
decided and even disdainful. They think the charge of sin inappropriate, for
they have no consciousnessofit, and no felt need of a Saviour. The sinfulness
of rejecting Christ is seenin its being a rejectionof the Father(Luke 10:16). It
is not possible to rejectChrist, and be right with God.
(S. H. Tindall.)

Failure
C. G. Lang.
In a life that is lived with the thoughts of eternity, in one aspectfailure is
inevitable: in another aspectfailure is impossible.
1. Failure is inevitable. If I acceptfor myself an ideal which is beyond the
limits of here and now, then manifestly it is impossible that I can here and
now realize it. There must be always with me, so long as I am faithful to that
ideal, a sense ofincompleteness, a ceaselessaspiration, an effort that only the
grave can close. He knows if he is faithful that he has before him an eternal
career, that the end to which he is moving is likeness to Jesus Christ; that he
has to pass into the unveiled presence of God and hold communion with Him.
If that be the end, can it be otherwise than that, in the meanwhile, there
should be failure, humiliation, penitence, and ceaselessand unwearied
discipline of self?
2. Failure, in another aspect, is impossible. Only be sure that deep down at the
root of life there is loyalty to God, and then begin where we are placed — in
the effort to find Him He will fulfil the search. The miracle of the failure of
Calvary is our assurance ofthat truth. It is this living for the Eternal, as a
venture of faith, which has always appealedto the eternalGod, which His own
nature is pledged to meet. Do we stumble? It is only that we may realize His
readiness to help. Are we bewildered? It is only in order that we may find how
sure He guides. Are we humiliated by our confessions?It is only that we may
realize the readiness of His pardon. Are we conscious and strickenwith the
sense ofour weakness?It is only that we may find His strength perfected
within us. If we have only takensides with Him in the greatissues of human
life, then He will justify our choice.
(C. G. Lang.)
Failure may be welcomed
C. G. Lang.

Our failure in the light of the Cross, our spiritual failures, are things to be
welcomed;they prevent the torpor of dull assurancecreeping overus like a
poison; they prevent our falling under imperfect standards of life, they prove,
so long as their are constantwith us, that the energyof the Spirit of God has
not left us to ourselves;they witness to us that we recognize the truth that our
souls can find their restand satisfactiononly in God.
(C. G. Lang.)
The despisedSaviour
R. C. Ford, M.A.
To all God grants some dim vision of what He intends man to be. The holiest
men have had the clearestglimpses ofthat character. One nation was
separatedto keepthe ideal before the world. The majority corrupted the
representation, but some prophets saw it clearly.
I. GOD'S IDEAL FOR MAN, AND ITS REALIZATION IN CHRIST. The
majority thought He would be another Solomon, David's greaterson. The
prophet saw that He would be a Sinless Sufferer; what it had been intended
that the nation should be, that the Suffering Servant would be. The voice of
God, which setforth the ideal by the lips of prophets, now speaks throughour
own highest desires.
II. THE WORLD'S RECEPTION OF THE REVEALED IDEAL. Pilate has
brought Him forth that His suffering may excite their pity, but His pure and
loving life has made them relentless in their hate. There is no beauty that they
should desire Him. Barabbas, the bold and reckless, is the people's choice.
While boon companions crowdround him, cold looks and scornful smiles are
reservedfor Christ. Christ had headed no revolt againstthe powers that be,
and therefore He was not popular. Politicalemancipationis more popular
than spiritual. The path of righteousness ends on Calvary; its crown is one of
thorns, its throne a cross.

III. THE MEANING OF THE REVELATION OF THIS IDEAL. The world
says, Blessedare the wealthy, the powerful, the great, and the wise. Christ
says, Blessedare the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the meek, the mourners,
the persecuted. At first we pity Christ, and reserve our indignation for His
persecutors. ButHe was the leastpitiable of all that group. Pilate was a
pitiable victim, the people were pitiable because carriedawayby passion, and
the priests by desire for revenge. The greatnessofapparent weaknessis here
revealed. Yet we despise weakness. Here is a dramatic representationof
weighty decisions made every day in human hearts. When we choose easeand
worldly glory in preference to holiness and self-denial, we despise and reject
Christ. Here our choice is seenworkedout to the bitter end. This is a
revelation of the meaning of sin.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THIS REVELATION. The world cannever forget that
spiracle. In the dark ages,whenthe Bible was a hidden book, a representation
of this scene was to be found in every church. Though obscuredby
superstition, the ideal was still held up, and was still moulding the minds and
stimulating the holy endeavours of men. In an open Bible we have the ideal
more truthfully setforth. The love there revealedhas been the constraining
motive which moved apostles to preach, martyrs to suffer, missionaries to
forgo the joys of home, and humble men and women to labour in countless
ways to advance the interests of Christ. His patience shames our murmuring:
His burning love to us kindles our love to Him.
(R. C. Ford, M.A.)
The world's regardfor the outward
H. Allen, D.D.
The greatcause assignedby the prophet for the astonishment of men at the
Messiahand for their rejection of Him is, that His real glory is hidden beneath
humiliation and sorrow. The world, that is, which always looks atthe outward
appearance ofthings, judges them according to their material splendours;
having a carnaleye, it can but dimly discern moral beauty. It renders homage

to thrones and crowns, and wealth and power, and does not care to see the
moral iniquity and the spiritual repulsiveness there may be behind them; it
feels pity and contempt for suffering and poverty and obloquy, and does not
care to see the moral grandeur that these may coveror indicate. There are few
of us so reverent to a poor, godly man, as to a rich godless one. We may not
refuse to utter words commending the one and condemning the other, but we
utter them very tenderly; the goodness ofa rich man causes us to exhaust our
expletives, and almostourselves, in admiring praise; the wickedness ofa poor
man is denounced by us without mercy; but when the conditions are reversed
we have a great dealmore reserve. Our praise is a concessionthat we cannot
withhold. We blame "with bated breath, and whispering humbleness." The
raggedgarments of poverty have a wonderful transparencywhen vice lies
behind them; while riches usurp the powers of charity, and "hide the
multitude of sins."
(H. Allen, D.D.)
The art of seeing the spiritual
H. Allon, D.D.
The Jews did not look for spiritual meaning in their dispensation, but simply
at material and mechanicalordinances, and they became Pharisees —
regarding religionas a thing of phylacteries and tithes and streetprayers:
they did not look for spiritual glory in their expectedMessiah, orfor spiritual
blessings in His coming, and they became absorbedin the conceptionof a
temporal prince, and were incapable of seeing anything else in Him; and,
because He was not this, in their astonishment and anger, they rejectedand
crucified Him. The lessonis a universal one; it affects the spiritual education
of every soul, our own daily habits of interpreting things. We may look at
God's world until we see nothing of God's presence in it; nothing but
mechanicalforces. A scientific or philosophicaleye may sooneducate itself to
see nothing but science and philosophy; a material eye, to see nothing but
materialism. We may look upon creation, and see no Creator;upon
providence, and see no Benefactor. So we may read the Bible, and see nothing

but sacredhistory, or scientific philosophy — the letter and not the spirit. So
we may look at Christian things on their material rather than their spiritual
side. We may speculate upon a millennium coming of Christ, until we forget
His spiritual presence — even upon heaven itself, until we forget the inward
grace, and holiness and Divine communion that chiefly make it heaven. Let us
carefully cultivate the Divine art of seeing spiritual aspects andmeanings in
all things, of judging of all things by their spiritual importance, of valuing
them for their spiritual influence, of applying them to spiritual uses. "The
pure in heart see God;" spiritual things are spiritually discerned."
(H. Allon, D.D.)
Christ rejected
H. Allon, D.D.
I. The first reasonassignedforthe rejectionof the Messiahby the Jews was
THE GRADUAL AND UNOSTENTATIOUS MANNEROF HIS
MANIFESTATION."He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a
root out of a dry ground," etc. The general reference is, no doubt, to His
parentage, and His manner of entering the world — so contrastedwith the
probable expectations of the Jews. Notlike a cedar of Lebanon did the world s
Messiahappear;not as a scionof a noble and wealthy house; not as the son of
a Herod or a Caiaphas — but "as a "tender plant," as "a root, out of a dry
ground." It is a repetition of the figure in the eleventh chapter, "There shall
come forth a Shoot out of the stem of Jesse;and a Scion shall spring forth
from his roots." Justas the descendants of the Plantagenets are to be found
amongstour English peasantry, the glory of the family had departed. Nothing
could be farther from the thought of the carnalJews than that Messiahthe
Prince should be a scion of such a forgotten house. How wonderful in its
obscurity and helplessness wasHis childhood; not hastening towards His
manifestation, not hastening even towards His ministry to the perishing, but
waiting until "the fulness of time was come;" growing into the child, the
youth, the man; for more than thirty years giving scarcelya sign that He was
other than an ordinary sonof humanity; at first helplessly dependent upon

His parents for support and direction, then obediently "subjectto them,"
fulfilling all the conditions and duties of childhood, a child with children as
well as a man with men; then a youth labouring as an artisan, fulfilling His
greatmission to the world in a carpenter's shop. And then fulfilling His
ministry, not amongstthe rich, but amongstthe poor; not in acts of rule and
conquest, but in deeds of beneficence and words of spiritual life; and
consummating it by a death on a cross.
II. The secondreasonforthe rejectionof the Messiahby the Jews, whichthe
prophet assigns, is HIS UNATTRACTIVE APPEARANCE WHEN
MANIFESTED.This he puts both negatively and positively.
1. Negatively, He was destitute of all attractions;He had "no form nor
comeliness;" He was without "beauty" to make men "desire Him".
2. But there were positive repulsions; everything to offend men who had such
prepossessionsas they had. A Messiahin the guise of a peasantbabe — the
Divine in the form of a servantand a sufferer. Chiefly, however, we are
arrestedby the phrase, which, because of its touching beauty, has almost
become one of the personaldesignations of the Messiah — "A Man of
sorrows" — literally, a Man of sufferings, or of many sufferings — One who
possesses sufferings as othermen possessintelligence, orphysical faculty —
One who was "acquaintedwith grief," not in the casual, transient wayin
which most men are, but with an intimacy as of companionship; the utmost
bodily and mental sorrow was endured by Him. The emphasis of the
description lies not in the fact that one who came to be a Prophet and
Reformerwas subjected to martyr treatment, for such men have ever been
rejectedand persecutedby the ignorance, envy and madness of their
generation. It is that He who was the Creatorand Lord of all things should
have submitted to this condition, borne this obloquy, endured this suffering;
that the Lord of life and blessednessshould appearin our world, not only as a
Man, but as so suffering a Man, as that He should be known amongstother
suffering men as pre-eminently "a Man of sorrows"— a Man whose sorrows
were greaterthan other men's sorrows. Now, we cannotthink that this
designationis given to Him merely because ofthe bodily sufferings, or social
provocations, that were inflicted upon Him. We shall touch but very distantly

the true heart of the Redeemer's sorrows,if we limit the cause of them to the
mere stubbornness of His generation, orto the mere physical agonies ofHis
death. It is doing no wrong to the pre-eminence of the Saviour's agonies to
say, that many teachers of truth have been opposedand persecutedmore than
He was, and that many martyrs have endured deaths of more terrible physical
agony. If this were all, we should be compelled, I think, to admit that the
prophetic description is somewhatexaggerated. How, then, is it to be
accountedfor? Only by the factof His having also endured transcendent
inward sorrow;sorrow of mind, sorrow of heart, of which ordinary men have
no experience;only by His own strange expressionin His agony, when no
human hand touched Him — "My soul is exceedinglysorrowful, even unto
death." Then comes the mystery of such a pure and perfect soul experiencing
such a sorrow. If He were only a prophet and martyr for the truth of God,
why, as distinguished from all other prophets and martyrs, should He have
endured so much inward anguish? Here we touch the greatmystery of
atonement, and we are bold to say that this alone interprets Christ's peculiar
sorrow.
(H. Allon, D.D.)
Lessons from the manner of Christ's appearing
H. Allon, D.D.
1. Greatthings may be found in very lowly forms. We judge of things by
material magnitudes; the spiritual God judges them by moral qualities. The
greatforces that have ruled the world have mostly been born in lowly places;
they have been moulded to greatness in the schoolofnecessity;trained to
greatness in the schoolof endurance. He who has not to endure cannever be
great. Let us cultivate the spiritual eye, that canrecognize spiritual qualities,
everywhere, and neither in others nor in "ourselves disparage" the day of
small things, the germs of virtue and strength; for we know not what they may
achieve. The acorn becomes anoak;the "solitarymonk shakes the world;"
the Babe of Bethlehem becomes the Christ of Christianity. Your solitary

scholarmay be the nucleus of a greatsystemof education;your solitary
convert may evangelize a nation (Matthew 13:31-32).
2. The power of Divine patience. Godwaits, even in His greatredeeming
purpose, until "the fulness of time is come," and then until the "tender plant
grows up before Him." We, in our impatience, wish to do all things at once, to
convert the world in a day. Our zeal becomes fanaticismthe more difficult to
check because ittakes so holy a form.
(H. Allon, D.D.)
Aversion to Christ
G. F, Pentecost, D. D.
The reasonfor this aversionto Christ may probably be found in the fact of —
1. His sorrowful face.
2. His serious manner.
3. His spiritual teaching.
4. His consecrationto His Father's business.
5. His single walk with God, His habits of retirement and prayer.Men hate
and rejectChrist for these characteristics. The world's spirit and all worldly
religion resentthese aspects ofspiritual life.
(G. F, Pentecost, D. D.)
Handel's Messiah
J. Higgins.
Of Handel, it is said, that when composing his Messiah,"and he came to these
words, he was affectedto tears; and well might he weep, for history furnishes
no parallel to this case.

(J. Higgins.)
A man of sorrows
The causes ofChrist's sorrows
H. Allon, D. D.
I. THE DAILY CONTACT OF HIS PURE AND PIOUS SOUL WITH
SINFUL AND SINNING MEN. And who may conceive the constancyand
intensity of the anguish that would spring from this? There would be the sense
of human relationship to a race that had sinned and fallen; they were men,
and He was a Man too: "He likewise took partof the same;" they were His
proper brothers; He was allied in blood to men so guilty and degraded. It was
as if a vicious brother, a prodigal son, were guilty of nameless and constant
crime. The sense ofmen's guilt, degradation, misery, ingratitude, would bow
down His pure soul with unspeakable sorrow and shame. Then there was His
daily practicalcontactwith acts and hearts of sin; the touch on every side, and
whereverHe felt humanity, of what was unloving and unholy; the sight of
their hate to His loving Father; of their rebelliousness againstHis holy law; a
sinfulness and unspiritualness that led them to rejectand hate Him; to turn
awaywith dislike and determination from His holy words and deeds. His
greathuman love, His perfect human holiness, would wonderfully combine to
wring His soul with anguish. The apostle intimates how greatthis sorrow was,
when he says that "He endured the contradictionof sinners againstHimself;"
that He "resistedunto blood, striving againstsin." And we can understand
the mysterious agony of His soul in Gethsemane only by supposing that it was
the sense ofthe world's guilt that lay upon it: that made His soul so exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. We have only to think of His pure nature; that He
was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;" and to remember the
men that He came into contactwith; the world in which He lived; the
treatment which His messageofholiness and mercy received:to understand
how sore the sorrow of His soul would be.

II. THE TEMPTATIONSOF THE DEVIL. He, the pure and perfect Son of
the Father, was doomed to listen to polluting and hateful thoughts of distrust
and sin: He who so loathed evil was plied with evil.
III. THE GREAT BUT INEXPLICABLE SORROW OF WHATEVER
CONSTITUTED HIS ATONEMENT — of whateveris meant by its "pleasing
the Fatherto bruise Him" — to "put Him to grief" — to "make His soul an
offering for sin' — to "lay upon Him the iniquity of us all" — to "forsake
Him" on His cross. These were the chief elements of His sorrow — a sorrow
that has had no equal, and that, in many of its ingredients, has had no
likeness.
(H. Allon, D. D.)
Christ a Man of sorrows
E. Payson, D. D.
I. IT IS HERE PREDICTED THAT CHRIST SHOULD BE A MAN OF
SORROWS, and acquaintedwith grief. This prediction was literally fulfilled.
It has been supposedthat His sufferings were rather apparent than real; or, at
least, that His abundant consolations, andHis knowledge ofthe happy
consequenceswhichwould result from His death, rendered His sorrows
comparatively light, and almost convertedthem to joys. But never was
supposition more erroneous. His sufferings were incomparably greaterthan
they appearedto be. No finite mind can conceive oftheir extent. His sufferings
beganwith his birth, and ended but with His life.
1. It must have been exceedinglypainful to such a person as Christ to live in a
world like this.
2. Another circumstance which contributed to render our Saviour a Man of
sorrows was the reception He met with from those He came to save.
3. Another circumstance that threw a shade of gloomover our Saviour s life
was His clearview and constantanticipation of the dreadful agonies in which
it was to terminate. He was not ignorant, as we happily are, of the miseries

which were before Him. How deeply the prospectaffectedHim is evident from
His own language:"I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I
straitened till it be accomplished!"
II. We have in this prophetic passageAN ACCOUNT OF OUR SAVIOUR'S
CONDUCT UNDER THE PRESSURE OF THESE SORROWS."He was
oppressed," etc. "He was brought as a Lamb," etc. Never was language more
descriptive of the most perfectmeekness andpatience; never was prediction
more fully justified by the event than in the case before us. If His lips were
opened, it was but to express the most perfectsubmission to His Father's will,
and to breathe out prayers for His murderers. Christian, look at your Master,
and learn how to suffer. Sinner, look at your Saviour, and learn to admire, to
imitate, and to forgive. But why is this patient, innocent Sufferer thus
afflicted? "He was wounded for our transgressions," etc.
III. Our text describes THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRIST WAS
TREATED whenHe thus came as a Man of sorrows to atone for our sins.
"Despisedandrejectedof men." "We hid, as it were, our faces,"etc. He has
long since ascendedto heaven, and therefore cannot be the immediate object
of men's attacks.But His Gospeland His servants are still in the world; and
the manner in which they are treatedis sufficient evidence that the feelings of
the natural heart towardChrist are not materially different from those of the
Jews. His servants are hated, ridiculed and despised, His Gospelis rejected,
and His institutions slighted. Every man who voluntarily neglects to confess
Christ before men, and to commemorate His dying love, must say, either that
He does not choose to do it, or that he is not prepared to do it. If a man says, I
do not choose to confess Christ, he certainly rejects Him.
(E. Payson, D. D.)
The human race typified by the Man of sorrows
F. W. Robertson, M.A.
I. THE LOT OF HUMANITY IN THIS WORLD. This is the portrait of the
species — "A Man of sorrows andacquainted with grief."

II. THE TREATMENTWHICH DEPRESSEDHUMANITY COMMONLY
EXPERIENCE:"We hid, as it were, our faces from Him."
(F. W. Robertson, M.A.)
The Man of sorrows
I. "A MAN." He who was God, and was in the beginning with God, was made
flesh, and dwelt among us. Remembering that Jesus Christ is God, it behoves
us to recollectthatHis manhood was none the less realand substantial It
differed from our own humanity in the absence ofsin, but in no other respect.
This condescending participationin our nature brings the Lord Jesus very
near to us in relationship. Inasmuch as He was man, though also God, He was,
according to Hebrew law, our goel — our kinsman, next of kin. Now it was
according to the law that if an inheritance had been lost, it was the right of the
next kin to redeem it. Our Lord Jesus exercisedHis legalright, and seeing us
sold into bondage and our inheritance takenfrom us, came forward to redeem
both us and all our lost estate. Be thankful that you have not to go to God at
the first, and as you are, but you are invited to come to Jesus Christ, and
through Him to the Father. Then let me add, that every child of God ought
also to be comforted by the fact that our Redeemeris one of our own race,
seeing that He was made like unto His brethren that He might be a merciful
and faithful High Priest;and He was tempted in all points, like as we are, that
He might be able to succourthem that are tempted. The sympathy of Jesus is
the next most precious thing to His sacrifice.
II. "A MAN OF SORROWS." The expressionis intended to be very
emphatic; it is not "a sorrowfulman," but "a Man of sorrows," as if He were
made up of sorrows, andthey were constituent elements of His being. Some
are men of pleasure, others men of wealth, but He was "a Man of sorrows."
He and sorrow might have changednames. He who saw Him, saw sorrow, and
he who would see sorrow, must look on Him. "Behold, and see," saithHe, "if
there was ever sorrow like unto My sorrow which was clone unto Me."

1. Our Lord is calledthe Man of sorrows forpeculiarity, for this was His
peculiar tokenand specialmark. We might wellcall Him "a man of holiness;"
for there was no fault in Him: or a man, of labours, for He did His Father's
business earnestly; or "a man of eloquence," for never man spake like this
man. We might right fittingly callHim "The man of love," for never was
there greaterlove than glowedin His heart. Still, conspicuous as all these and
many other excellencies were,yet had we gazedupon Christ and been asked
afterwards what was the most striking peculiarity in Him, we should have said
His sorrow. Tears were His insignia, and the Cross His escutcheon.
2. Is not the title of "Manof sorrows"givento our Lord by wayof eminence?
He was not only sorrowful, but pre-eminent among the sorrowful. All men
have a burden to bear, but His was heaviestof all. The reasonfor this superior
sorrow may be found in the fact that with His sorrow there was no admixture
of sin. Side by side with His painful sensitiveness ofthe evil of sin, was His
gracious tenderness towards the sorrows of others. Besides this our Saviour
had a peculiar relationship to sin. He was not merely afflicted with the sight of
it, and saddenedby perceiving its effects on others, but sin was actually laid
upon Him, and He was himself numbered with the transgressors.
3. The title of "Man of sorrows,"was also givento our Lord to indicate the
constancyof His afflictions. He changedHis place of abode, but He always
lodged with sorrow. Sorrow wove His swaddling bands, and sorrow spun His
winding sheet.
4. He was also "a Man of sorrows," forthe variety of His woes;He was a man
not of sorrow only, but of "sorrows." As to His poverty. He knew the heart-
rendings of bereavement. Perhaps the bitterest of His sorrows were those
which were connectedwith His gracious work. He came as the Messiahsentof
God, on an embassageoflove, and men rejectedHis claims. Nor did they stay
at cold rejection;they then proceededto derision and ridicule. They charged
Him with every crime which their malice could suggest.And all the while He
was doing nothing but seeking theiradvantage in all ways, As He proceededin
His life His sorrows multiplied. He preached, and when men's hearts were
hard, and they would not believe what He said, "He was grieved for the
hardness of their hearts." His sorrow was not that men injured Him, but that

they destroyedthemselves;this it was, that pulled up the sluices of His soul,
and made His eyes o'erflow with tears: "O Jerusalem!Jerusalem!how often
would I have gathered thy children together," etc. But surely He found some
solace withthe few companions whom He had gathered around Him? He did;
but for all that He must have found as much sorrow as solace in their
company. They were dull scholars;they were miserable comforters for the
Man of sorrows. The Saviour, from the very dignity of His nature, must suffer
alone. The mountain-side, with Christ upon it, seems to me a suggestive
symbol of His earthly life. His soul lived in vast solitudes, sublime and terrible,
and there, amid a midnight of trouble, His spirit communed with the Father,
no one being able to accompanyHim into the dark glens and gloomyravines
of His unique experience. In the last, crowning sorrows ofHis life, there came
upon Him the penal inflictions from God, the chastisementofour peace which
was upon Him.
III. "ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF."
1. With grief he had an intimate acquaintance. He did not know merely what
it was in others, but it came home to Himself. We have read of grief, we have
sympathized with grief, we have sometimes felt grief: but the.Lord felt it more
intensely than other men in His innermost soul. He and grief were bosom
friends.
2. It was a continuous acquaintance. He did not call at grief's house sometimes
to take a tonic by the way, neither did He sip now and then of the wormwood
and the gall, but the quassia cup was always His, and ashes were always
mingled with His bread. Notonly forty days in the wilderness did Jesus fast;
the world was ever a wilderness to Him, and His life was one long Lent. I do
not saythat He was not, after all, a happy man, for down deep in His soul
benevolence always supplied a living spring of joy to Him. There was a joy
into which we are one day to enter — the "joy of our Lord" — the "joy set
before Him" for which "He endured the Cross, despising the shame;" but that
does not at all take awayfrom the fact that His acquaintance with grief was
continuous and intimate beyond that of any man who ever lived. It was indeed
a growing acquaintance with grief, for eachsteptook Him deeper down into
the grim shades ofsorrow.

3. It was a voluntary acquaintance for our sakes. He need never have known a
grief at all, and at any moment He might have said to grief, farewell. But He
remained to the end, out of love to us, griefs acquaintance.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ as a Sufferer
J. Stalker, D.D.
1. Jesus sufferedfrom what may be called the ordinary privations of
humanity. Born in a stable, etc. We may not be able to assertthat none ever
suffered so much physical agonyas He, but this is at leastprobable; for the
exquisiteness of His physical organism in all likelihood made Him much more
sensitive than others to pain.
2. He suffered keenly from the pain of anticipating coming evil.
3. He suffered from the sense ofbeing the cause ofsuffering to others. To
persons of an unselfish disposition the keenestpang inflicted by their own
weakness ormisfortunes may sometimes be to see those whom they would like
to make happy rendered miserable through connectionwith themselves. To
the child Jesus how gruesome must have been the story of the babes of
Bethlehem, whom the sword of Herod smote when it was seeking forHim! Or,
if His mother spared Him this recital, He must at leasthave learned how she
and Josephhad to flee with Him to Egypt to escape the jealousyof Herod. As
His life drew near its close, this sense that connectionwith Himself might be
fatal to His friends forceditself more and more upon His notice.
4. The element of shame was, all through, a large ingredient in His cup of
suffering. To a sensitive mind there is nothing more intolerable; it is far
harder to bear than bodily pain. But it assailedJesusin nearly every form,
pursuing Him all through His life. He was railed at for the humbleness of His
birth. The high-born priests and the educatedrabbis sneeredat the
carpenter's son who had never learned, and the wealthy Pharisees derided
Him. He was againand againcalled a madman. Evidently this was whatPilate

took Him for. The Roman soldiers adopted an attitude of savage banter
towards Him all through His trial and crucifixion, treating Him as boys
torment one who is weak in the mind. He heard Barabbas preferred to
Himself by the voice of His fellow-countrymen, and He was crucified between
thieves, as if He were the worstof the worst. A hail of mockerykept falling on
Him in His dying hours. Thus had He who was conscious ofirresistible
strength to submit to be treatedas the weakestofweaklings, andHe who was
the Wisdom of the Highest to submit to be used as if He were less than a man.
5. But to Jesus it was more painful still, being the Holy One of God, to be
regardedand treated as the chief of sinners. To one who loves God and
goodness there canbe nothing so odious as to be suspectedof hypocrisy and to
know that he is believed to be perpetrating crimes at the opposite extreme
from his public profession. Yet this was what Jesus was accusedof. Possibly
there was not a single human being, when He died, who believed that He was
what He claimedto be.
6. If to the holy soulof Jesus it was painful to be believed to be guilty of sins
which He had not committed, it must have been still more painful to feelthat
He was being thrust into sin itself. This attempt was olden made. Satantried it
in the wilderness, and although only this one temptation of his is detailed, he
no doubt often returned to the attack. Wickedmen tried it; they resortedto
every device to cause Him to lose His temper (Luke 11:53, 54). Even friends,
who did not understand the plan of His life, endeavouredto direct Him from
the course prescribedto Him by the will of God — so much so that He had
once to turn on one of them, as if he were temptation personified, with "Get
thee behind Me, Satan."
7. While the proximity of sin awoke suchloathing in His holy soul, and the
touch of it was to Him like the touch of fire on delicate flesh, He was brought
into the closestcontactwith it, and hence arose His deepestsuffering. It
pressedits loathsome presence onHim from a hundred quarters. He who
could not bear to look on it saw it in its worstforms close to His very eyes. His
own presence in the world brought it out; for goodnessstirs up the evil lying
at the bottom of wickedhearts. It was as if all the sin of the race were rushing
upon Him, and Jesus feltit as if it were all His own.

(J. Stalker, D.D.)
The Man of sorrows
Ray Palmer, D.D.
I. THE LANGUAGE DOES NOT DESCRIBETHE CASE OF ONE WHO
ENCOUNTEREDONLY THE ORDINARYOR THE AVERAGE AMOUNT
OF THE TRIALS WHICH BELONG TO HUMAN LIFE. There is implied in
it a pre-eminence in sorrow, a peculiarly deep experience of grief.
II. OF ALL THE MANY GRIEFS OF THE DIVINE REDEEMERIN HIS
HUMAN LIFE, THERE WAS NOT ONE WHICH HE HIMSELF EITHER
NEEDED OR DESERVED TO BEAR. When the apostle tells us that He was
made perfect through suffering, the meaning is that He was by this means
made officially perfect as a Saviour, as the Captain of salvation, and the High-
Priestof His redeemed, and not that He lackedany moral excellence,to
acquire which suffering was needful. So again, when it is said that He learned
obedience by the things which He suffered, the meaning obviously is, that by
putting Himself in a state of humiliation, and in the condition of a servant
under law, He came to know by experience what it was to render obedience to
the law, and not at all that He was ever defective in the least, as to the spirit of
obedience to the Father's will. As He had no need of any improvement of His
virtues, He had no faults, no sins, which called for chastisement.
III. ALL THE SUFFERINGS OF THE LORD JESUS WERE ENDURED
WITH UNWAVERING FORTITUDE.
IV. IN ALL THE GRIEFS AND SORROWS WHICHTHE BLESSED
SAVIOUR SUFFERED, HIS MIND WAS CHIEFLY OCCUPIED WITH
THE GOOD RESULTS IN WHICH HIS SUFFERINGSWERE TO ISSUE.
He deliberately enteredon His singular careerof humiliation and self-
sacrifice for the goodof man and the glory of God. Practicallessons:

1. If even the Son of God, when on earth, was a Man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief, we certainly should not think it strange that days of
trial are appointed unto us.
2. If our blessedLord felt keenly what He suffered, and was evenmoved to
tears, we need not reproachourselves because we deeplyfeel our trials, and
cannot but weepin the fulness of our grief.
3. If Christ was a willing sufferer, deliberately choosing to suffer for the good
of others, we surely should consentto suffer for our own advantage.
4. If our blessedLord and Saviour made less accountof what He suffered than
of the goodresults that were to follow, it is wise at leastin us to do the same.
(Ray Palmer, D.D.)
Christ the Man of sorrows
Evan Lewis, B.A.
While on earth He was surrounded by many sources ofpleasure. The earth
teemed with every form of life, and the air was melodious with music. The
sceneries ofHis native country suggestedthe sublimest imagery, and inspired
poetry of the highest kind: and had He possessednone of these, He would have
been perfectly happy; for He was the Infinite; His sorrows arosefrom —
I. THE FELT RELATION OF A LOVING BEING TO A RUINED RACE.
II. THE CRUSHING PRESSURE OF HIS MEDIATORIAL WORK.
III. HIS CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE THAT THE RESULT OF HIS MISSION
WOULD NOT BE EQUAL TO THE BENEVOLENCEOF HIS WILL.
(Evan Lewis, B.A.)
The mystery of sorrow
W. J. KnoxLittle, M.A.

I. CONSIDERITS RELATION TO MAN. There are facts which know no
frontiers. In the inner life of thought and feeling such is sorrow. It is a
universal language, it obliterates space, it annihilates time; it is the great
leveller, it ignores rank, it stands head and shoulders above any dignity. Think
again, it is too sacredto be only universal. It is also an intimate fact. None can
comfort. There may be sweethelp, deep and real sympathy, not comfort, no,
for none canundo the tragic truth. Yes, there is One. One can come nearestto
the feeling, mad, in our eternal life, in a sense He can undo. One, only One,
has gatheredup the representative experiences ofall.
II. The thought gains precisionwhen we remember that IT BEARS A
WITNESS FOR GOD. LetLove meet death or trouble, and the result is
sorrow. This noblest human sorrow so begottenis a witness to the Source of
its being. Love, the love of the creature, is his highestendowment from the
Love of God.
III. SORROW GAINS A CLEARER OUTLINE TO ITS FRAIL AND
MISTY FORM AS SEEN IN ITS RELATION TO WHAT IS CALLED THE
"SCHEME OF REDEMPTION;" seen, that is, in its place in the awakening
and restoring of the human spirit, great though fallen. Sorrow here is a
power. It takes varying tints.
1. At the darkest, it is a power of warning, of prophecy. It warns of a stern
reality in this world — the dreadfulness of sin.
2. Better, it is a powerto transfigure. Repentance is the one path to pardon,
and it is a certain path. Whence comes true repentance? It comes from God's
love seenin fairest, saddestimage in "the Man of sorrows "
3. It is a powerto purify. Sorrow sends you in on self. Godless sorrowwould
make self more selfish, working death; not so sorrow from the Cross ofChrist.
A life searchedout, repented of, is a spirit purified.
(W. J. KnoxLittle, M.A.)
The suffering Christ

I. THE MATTER, whatHe suffered.
II. THE MANNER, how He came to suffer.
III. THE REASONS and ends why, for our good. Here are three chief lessons
for a Christian to learn: —
1. Patience and comfort.
2. Humility.
3. In the end, love. All this was for you. What will you do for God again?
( T. Manton, D.D.)
Sir NoelPaton's "Manof Sorrows
D. Davies.
To the painter ere he satdown to produce this work of art many questions
would suggestthemselves. Among them, doubtless, would be these: —
1. What shall be the scene? Ofcourse, the artist would naturally think of
many scenes in our Lord's life more or less appropriate for such a
representation. The painter seems to have recognizedthe greattruth which
we all must have proved to some extent, that man tastes deepestofsorrow in
loneliness, that the cross whichweighs heavieston any shoulder is not the
cross which the world can see, but which is borne out of sight, when the heart,
and no one else save God, knowethits ownbitterness. Thus Sir NoelPaton has
represented"The Man of Sorrows" as isolatedfrom His fellows, far away
from the habitations of men and shut out of the world. The whole picture is
one of desolation. In its centre and foreground is represented"The Man of
Sorrows sitting upon a jaggedrock. And, oh, what sorrow is depicted there!
Those large, full, liquid eyes brim over with tears;every expressionof the
countenance is chargedwith grief; the lips are wan, and a deep furrow crosses
that young, manly brow. The swollenveins in the neck and temple, the
powerful muscular actionin the right hand, as with open fingers it rests
heavily upon the rocks and in the left clenchedtightly as it presses upon the

thigh, and in the feet as they press the earth convulsively underneath — for
the Man of Sorrows is representedwith head uncovered and feetunsandalled
— all these tell the story of an awful tension of a withering sorrow.
2. Closelyand inseparably connectedwith the question of scene is that of the
period in our Lord s life in which He can most appropriately be represented
as the Man of sorrows. The artist choosesthe eve of the Temptation, and thus
selects the greatesttransitionalperiod of our Saviour's life — that beginning
with the Baptism and closing with the Temptation. The time of day chosenis
the twilight of morning. There is something in the twilight that is consistent
not only with solemn, but also with sad thoughts and feelings.
3. What can accountfor the sorrow!You look to the picture in vain for the
solution. The painting is a problem, an enigma. It is purposely so. The painter
presents to us the greatfact, not its explanation. He goes to Inspired Writ for
that, and thus refers the perplexed spectatorto the words of Isaiah as
supplying the key to the whole painting: "He hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows," etc. (vers. 4-6). These are the words which Sir Noel
Patonadopts, and practically says, "There!that is what I mean." "We did
esteemHim stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." How shall this false
estimate of Him be corrected? Look atthe picture; that Man of sorrows looks
up and holds communion with the skies;see the half-open mouth expressive of
expectation, and those eyes so full of tears and yet so full of vision. Verily He is
not alone — the Fatheris with Him; for from the heavens and from a source
other than the sun there descends through a rift of the clouds a shaft of light
that looks like the light of the Father's countenance, and rests upon the face of
this Sorrowing One. This human countenance thus lit up by the light of the
Divine countenance is the painter's sublime answerto the old-world estimate
of the Man of sorrows. Whatneed of any more!
(D. Davies.)
Christ's life a model for His people
C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.

The more deeply we enter into the meaning of Christ consideredas the Divine
Man, the more distinctly revealedit becomes to us that what His life was our
life is intended to be. There are instincts and there are impulses and ambitions
that shrink from coming under the sovereigntyof a commitment so cordial
and entire. That accounts for the disproportionate emphasis so customarily
laid upon the commercialfeature of the atonement. It is easierand it is lazier
to believe in a Christ that is going to pay my debts for me, than it is to grow
up in Christ into a Divine endowment, that shall be itself the cure for
insolvency and the material of wealth Divine and inexhaustible. You have
really done nothing for a poor man by paying his debts for him, unless in
addition to squaring his old accounts you have in such manner dealt with him
as to guarantee him againstbeing similarly involved in the time to come.
Emphasize as we may the merely ransoming work of Christ, we are not made
free men by having our fetters broken off, and we are not made wealthy men
by having our debts paid. It is not what Christ delivers us from, but what He
translates us into that makes us saved men in Christ.
(C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
Our Lord's life lived in shadow
No fair reading of the narrative of Christ's life will leave the impression that
sorrow of heart was a grace that Christ cultivated. The pathetic was not a
temper of spirit which He encouragedin Himself or in others. Heaviness of
mind was not a thing to be sought in and for itself. There is no gain. saying the
fact that one greatobject of His mission was to make the world glad. Still for
all that He was a Man of sorrows, andacquainted with grief. It needs also to
be said that for us to be heavy-hearted merely because Christwas, to be
sorrowfulby a sheeract of imitation, is distinctly repugnant to everything like
Christian sense, and at the farthest possible remove from all that deserves to
be called Christian sincerity. Neither canwe leave out of the accountall those
passages, especiallyin the New Testament, where particular praise is
accordedto gladness ofheart.

The problems of life involve sorrow
Nevertheless,whenall these caveats have beenentered and gladness ofheart
eulogizedto the fullest extent, authorized by multitudinous expressions
occurring throughout the entire Scriptures, it still remains beyond dispute
that our Lord's life was lived in shadow, and that He died at lastless because
of the nails and the spear-wounds, than He did of a broken heart.
The sorrow of strained powers
He came to interfere with the natural current of event. And it made Him
tired. And a man, even a Divine man, is less apt to laugh when He is tired. A
gooddeal of what we callour gladness ofheart, if we will care to scrutinize it,
is simply the congenialluxury of drifting down the current of event. If you are
pulling your boat up-stream you will be soberwhile you are about it. Strained
powers are serious. It is the farthestfrom our thought to disparage
exuberance or even hilarity; nevertheless, it remains a fact that hilarity is
feeling out at pasture and not feeling under the yoke. It is steamescaping at
the throttle because it is not pushing at the piston. I venture to say that Christ
could not shake His purpose off. He was here to stay the downward drift of
event; the purpose was too vast to be easilyflung aside, and His muscles were
too solidly knotted to it to be easilyunknotted and relaxed. And we shall have
to go on and saythat it was an inherent part of Christ to have a purpose and
to be mightily bent to its achievement; and not only that, it was an inherent
part of Christ as the Saviour of this world to seize upon the current of event
and of history and to under. take to reverse it. Exactly that was the genius of
the Christ-mission.

The Christ-life in the Christian
You cannot drift down the tide of event and be a Christ man or a Christ
woman. The world is to be saved; the tide is to be reversed. Man inspired of
God is to do it; and you cannot buckle yourself down to that problem in
Christian whole-heartedness andnot grow soberunder it. Now you see the
philosophy of the soberChrist. He flung Himself againstforty centuries of bad
event, and the Divine Man gotbruised by the impact. He stoodup and let
forty centuries jump on Him; He held His own, but blood broke through His
pores in perspiration, and about that there is nothing humorous. The edge of
this truth is not broken by the fact that Christ took hold of the work of the
world's saving in a largerway than it is possible for us to do, and that
therefore the burden of His undertaking came upon Him in a heavier, wider,
and more crushing way than it can come upon us; and that therefore while it
overwhelmed Him in sorrow, our smaller missionand lighter task canwith
entire propriety leave us buoyant and gladsome. All of that conceptionof the
case lacksdignity and reach You can't take hold of a greatmatter in a small
way.
The sorrow of love
It is but a step now to go on and speak of the saddening effectnecessarily
flowing from the circumstances under which in this world Christian work has
to be done. It was the love which Christ had for the world that made Him sad
while doing His work in the world; and the infinitude of His love is what
explains the unutterableness of His pain; for the world in which Christ
fulfilled His missionwas a suffering world. Now a man who is without love
can be in the midst of suffering and, not suffer. A loveless spirit grieves over
his ownpain, but has no sense ofanother's pain, and no feeling of being
burdened by another's pain. Love has this peculiar property, that it makes the

person whom we love one with us, so that his experience becomes a part of our
own life, his pain becomes painful to us, his burdens make us tired. The
mother feels her child's pain as keenly as though it were her own pain,
perhaps more so. In its Divine relations this is all expressedin those familiar
words of Scripture, "In all their affliction He was afflicted." Sympathy is the
form which love takes in a suffering world. Love is the finest type of
communism.
Christ's greatcapacityfor suffering
H. O. Mackey.
The measure of our being is our capacityfor sorrow or joy. Captain Conder
speaks ofthe shadow castby Mount Hermon being as much as seventy miles
long at some periods. Was it not the very greatness ofChrist that made His
joys and His griefs equally unique?
(H. O. Mackey.)
We hid as it were our faces from Him
A sad confession
, Canon Cook., T.R. Birks.
In the margin of your Bibles this passageis rendered, "He hid as it were His
face from us." The literal translation of the Hebrew would be, "He was as a
hiding of faces from Him," or "from us." Some critical readers think these
words were intended to describe our Lord as having so humbled Himself, and
brought Himself to such a deep degradation, that He was comparable to the
leper who coveredhis face and cried, "Unclean, unclean," hiding himself from
the gaze of men. Abhorred and despisedby men, He was like one put aside
because ofHis disease andshunned by all mankind. Others suppose the
meaning to be that on accountof our Lord s terrible and protracted sorrow

His face wore an expressionso painful and grievous that men could scarcely
bear to look upon Him. They hid as it were their faces from Him — amazedat
that brow all carved with lines of anxious thought, those cheeks allploughed
with furrows of deep care, those eyes all sunk in shades of sadness, that soul
bowed down, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death! It may be so;we cannot
tell. I have a plain, practicalpurpose to pursue. Here is an indictment to
which we must all plead guilty.
I. Sometimes men hide their faces from Jesus IN COOL CONTEMPT OF
HIM. How astounding! how revolting! He ought surely to be esteemedby all
mankind.
1. Some show their opposition by attempting to ignore or to tarnish the
dignity of His person.
2. Are there not others who affectgreatadmiration for Jesus of Nazarethas
an example of virtue and benevolence, who nevertheless rejectHis mediatorial
work as our Redeemer? As a substitutionary sacrifice theydo not and cannot
esteemHim.
3. Then they will pour contempt upon, the various doctrines of His Gospel.
4. And with what pitiful disdain the Lord s people are slighted! Do I address
anybody who has despisedthe Lord Jesus Christ? Your wantonness canoffer
no excuse but your ignorance. And as for your ignorance, it is without excuse.
II. A far more common way in which men hide their faces from Christ is BY
THEIR HEEDLESSNESS, THEIR INDIFFERENCE,THEIR NEGLECT.
III. We hid as it were our faces from Him BY PREFERRING ANYOTHER
MODE OF SALVATION TO SALVATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST.
IV. After we were quite sure that we could not be saved other than by the one
Mediator, do you remember how we continued to hide our face from Jesus BY
PERSISTENTUNBELIEF IN HIM.
V. But there are some of us who must plead guilty to another charge;we have
hidden as it were our faces from Him since He has savedus, and since we have
known His love, BY OUR SILLY SHAME AND OUR BASE COWARDICE.

VI. Many, if not all, of us who are believers will penitently confess that we
have sometimes hidden our faces from Christ BY NOT WALKING IN
CONSTANT FELLOWSHIP WITHHIM.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)"We hid as it were our faces from Him." Literally, "as one
from whom there is hiding of face," as if shrinking from a horrible sight.
(Canon Cook.)The impersonal form refers to the men just named, or all those
of note and influence. Their faces were avertedfrom Him, as a lunatic, beside
Himself, or one possessed, as a deceiverand a blasphemer.
(T.R. Birks.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
Acquainted with grief - For ‫עודיו‬ vidua, familiar with grief, eight MSS. and
one edition have ‫עריו‬ veyada, and knowing grief; the Septuagint, Syriac, and
Vulgate read it ‫עדויו‬ veyodea .
We hid as it were our faces from him "As one that hideth his face from us" -
For ‫רתסמכו‬ uchemaster, four MSS. (two ancient) have ‫ריתסמכו‬ uchemastir, one
MS. ‫ריתסמו‬ umastir . For ‫םינפ‬ panim, two MSS. have ‫וינפ‬ panaiu ; so likewise
the Septuagintand Vulgate. Mourners coveredup the lowerpart of their
faces, and their heads, 2 Samuel15:30; Ezekiel29:17;and lepers were
commanded by the law, Leviticus 13:45, to covertheir upper lip. From which
circumstance it seems that the Vulgate, Aquila, Symmachus, and the Jewish
commentators have takenthe word ‫עוגנ‬ nagua, stricken, in the next verse, as
meaning strickenwith the leprosy: εν αφῃ οντα, Sym.; αφημενον, Aq.;
leprosum, Vulg. So my old MS. Bible. I will insert the whole passage as
curious: -
There is not schapto him, ne fairnesse,

And we seegenhim, and he was not of sigte,
And we desiriden him dispisid; and the last of men:
Man of souaris and witing infirmitie;
And he hid his cheer and despisid;
Wherfor ne we settiden bi him:
Verili our seeknesse he toke and our sorewis he bair,
And we helden him as leprous and smyten of God, and meekid;
He forsoth wounded is for our wickednesse,
Defoulid is for our hidous giltis
The discipline of our pese upon him,
And with his wanne wound we ben helid.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
He is despised- This requires no explanation; and it needs no comment to
show that it was fulfilled. The Redeemerwas eminently the objectof contempt
and scornalike by the Pharisees,the Sadducees,and the Romans. In his life
on earth it was so;in his death it was still so;and since then, his name and
person have been extensivelythe objectof contempt. Nothing is a more
striking fulfillment of this than the conduct of the Jews atthe present day. The
very name of Jesus of Nazarethexcites contempt; and they join with their
fathers who rejectedhim in heaping on him every term indicative of scorn.
Rejectedofmen - This phrase is full of meaning, and in three words states the
whole history of man in regard to his treatment of the Redeemer. The name
‹The RejectedofMen,‘ will express all the melancholy history; rejectedby the
Jews;by the rich; the greatand the learned; by the mass of people of every
grade, and age, and rank. No prophecy was ever more strikingly fulfilled;
none could condense more significancyinto few words. In regardto the exact

sense ofthe phrase, interpreters have varied. Jerome renders it, Novissium
virorum - ‹The last of men;‘ that is, the most abject and contemptible of
mankind. The Septuagint, ‹His appearance is dishonored ( ἄτιμονatimon )
and defective ( ἐκλειπον ekleipon) more than the sons of men.‘ The Chaldee,
‹He is indeed despised, but he shall take awaythe glory of all kings;they are
infirm and sad, as if exposedto all calamities and sorrows.‘Some render it,
‹Mostabject of men,‘ and they refer to Job19:14, where the same word is
used to denote those friends who forsake the unfortunate.
The word ‫לדח‬ châdêlused here, is derived from the verb ‫לדח‬ châdal which
means “to cease,to leave off, to desist”;derived, says Gesenius (Lexicon),
from the idea of becoming languid, flaccid; and thence transferred to the act
of ceasing from labor. It means usually, to cease,to desist from, to leave, to let
alone (see 1 Kings 22:6-15;Job 7:15; Job 10:20;Isaiah 2:22). According to
Gesenius, the word here means to be left, to be destitute, or forsaken;and the
idea is, that be was forsakenby people. According to Hengstenberg (Christol.)
it means ‹the most abject of men,‘ he who ceasesfrom men, who ceases to
belong to the number of men; that is, who is the most abjectof men. Castellio
renders it, Minus quash homo - ‹Less than a man.‘ Junius and Tremellius,
Abjectissimus virorum - ‹The most abjectof men.‘ Grotius, ‹Rejectedofmen.‘
Symmachus, Ἐλάχιστος ἀνδρῶν Elachistos andrōn- ‹the leastof men.‘ The
idea is, undoubtedly, somehow that of ceasing from human beings, or from
being regarded as belonging to mankind.
There was a ceasing, ora withdrawing of that which usually pertains to man,
and which belongs to him. And the thought probably is, that he was not only
‹despised,‘but that there was an advance on that - there was a ceasing to treat
him as if he had human feelings, and was in any way entitled to human
fellowship and sympathy. It does not refer, therefore, so much to the active
means employed to rejecthim, as to the fact that he was regardedas cut off
from man; and the idea is not essentiallydifferent from this, that he was the
most abjectand vile of mortals in the estimationof others;so vile as not to be
deemed worthy of the treatment due to the lowest of men. This idea has been
substantially expressedin the Syriac translation.

A man of sorrows - What a beautiful expression!A man who was so sadand
sorrowful; whose life was so full of sufferings, that it might be said that that
was the characteristic ofthe man. A similar phraseologyoccurs in Proverbs
29:1, ‹He that being often reproved,‘ in the margin, ‹a man of reproofs;‘ in the
Hebrew, ‹A man of chastisements,‘that is, a man who is often chastised.
Compare Daniel 10:11:‹O Daniel, a man greatly beloved,‘Margin, as in
Hebrew, ‹A man of desires;that is, a man greatlydesired. Here, the
expressionmeans that his life was characterizedby sorrows. How remarkably
this was fulfilled in the life of the Redeemer, it is not necessaryto attempt to
show.
And acquainted with grief - Hebrew, ‫וידוע‬ ‫לחי‬ viydûa‛ choliy - ‹And knowing
grief.‘ The word rendered ‹grief‘ means usually sickness, disease
Deuteronomy 7:15; Deuteronomy28:61; Isaiah1:5; but it also means anxiety,
affliction Ecclesiastes 5:16;and then any evil or calamity Ecclesiastes6:2.
Many of the old interpreters explain it as meaning, that he was knownor
distinguished by disease;that is, affectedby it in a remarkable manner. So
Symm. Γνωστός νόσῳ Gnōstos nosō Jerome (the Vulgate) renders it, Scientem
infirmitatem. The Septuagint renders the whole clause, ‹A man in affliction (
ἐν πληγῇ en plēgē ), and knowing to bear languor, or disease‘( εἰδὼ; φέρειν
μαλακίανeidōs pherein malakian ). But if the word here means disease, it is
only a figurative designationof severe sufferings both of body and of soul.
Hengstenberg, Koppe, and Ammon, suppose that the figure is takenfrom the
leprosy, which was not only one of the most severe ofall diseases, but was in a
specialmanner regardedas a divine judgment. They suppose that many of the
expressions whichfollow may be explained with reference to this (compare
Hebrews 4:15). The idea is, that he was familiar with sorrow and calamity. It
does not mean, as it seems to me, that he was to be himself sick and diseased;
but that he was to be subject to various kinds of calamity, and that it was to be
a characteristic ofhis life that he was familiar with it. He was intimate with it.
He knew it personally; he knew it in others. He lived in the midst of scenesof
sorrow, and be became intimately acquainted with its various forms, and with
its evils. There is no evidence that the Redeemerwas himself sick at any time -
which is remarkable - but there is evidence in abundance that he was familiar
with all kinds of sorrow, and that his own life was a life of grief.

And we hid as it were our faces from him - There is here greatvariety of
interpretation and of translation. The margin reads, ‹As an hiding of faces
from him,‘ or ‹from us,‘ or, ‹He hid as it were his face from us.‘ The Hebrew
is literally, ‹And as the hiding of faces from him, or from it;‘ and
Hengstenberg explains it as meaning, ‹He was as an hiding of the face before
it.‘ that is, as a thing or person before whom a man covers his face, because he
cannot bear the disgusting sight. Jerome (the Vulgate) renders it, ‹His face
was as it were hidden and despised.‘The Septuagint, ‹For his countenance
was turned away‘ ( ἀπέστρυπταὶ apestraptai). The Chaldee, ‹And when he
took awayhis countenance ofmajesty from us, we were despisedand reputed
as nothing.‘ Interpreters have explained it in various ways.
1. ‹He was as one who hides his face before us;‘ alluding, as they suppose, to
the Mosaic law, whichrequired lepers to covertheir faces Leviticus 13:45, or
to the custom of covering the face in mourning, or for shame.
2. Others explain it as meaning, ‹as one before whom is the covering of the
face, that is, before whom a man covers the face from shame or disgust. So
Gesenius.
3. Others, ‹He was as one causing to concealthe face,‘that is, he induced
others to coverthe face before him. His sufferings were so terrible as to induce
them to turn away. So John H. Michaelis.
The idea seems to be, that he was as one from whom people hide their faces,
or turn away. This might either arise from a sight of his sufferings, as being so
offensive that they would turn away in pain - as in the case ofa leper; or it
might be, that he was so much an object of contempt, and so unlike what they
expected, that they would hide their faces and turn awayin scorn. This latter I
suppose to be the meaning; and that the idea is, that he was so unlike what
they had expected, that they hid their faces in affectedor real contempt.
And we esteemedhim not - That is, we esteemedhim as nothing; we set no
value on him. In order to give greaterenergyto a declaration, the Hebrews
frequently express a thing positively and then negatively. The prophet had
said that they held him in positive contempt; he here says that they did not
regard him as worthy of their notice. He here speaks in the name of his nation

- as one of the Jewishpeople. ‹We, the Jews, the nation to whom he was sent,
did not esteemhim as the Messiah, oras worthy of our affection or regard.‘
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
He is despised, and rejectedof men,.... Or, "ceasethfrom men"F6;was not
admitted into the company and conversationofmen, especiallyoffigure; or
ceasedfrom the class ofmen, in the opinion of others; he was not reckoned
among men, was accounteda worm, and no man; or, if a man, yet not in his
senses,a madman, nay, one that had a devil: or "deficient of men"; he had
none about him of any rank or figure in life, only some few fishermen, and
some women, and publicans, and harlots. The Vulgate Latin versionrenders
it, "the lastof men", the most abject and contemptible of mankind; despised,
because ofthe meanness ofhis birth, and parentage, and education, and of his
outward appearance in public life; because ofhis apostles and audience;
because ofhis doctrines, not agreeablyto carnalreason, and his works, some
of them being done on the sabbath day, and, as they maliciously suggested, by
the help of Satan;and especiallybecause ofhis ignominious sufferings and
death:
a man of sorrows, and acquaintedwith grief: or "knownby grief"F7;he was
known by his troubles, notorious for them; these were his constant
companions, his familiar acquaintance, with whom he was always conversant;
his life was one continued series of sorrow, from the cradle to the cross;in his
infancy his life was soughtfor by Herod, and he was obliged to be takenby his
parents, and flee into Egypt; he ate his bread in sorrow, and with the sweatof
his brow; he met with much sorrow from the hardness and unbelief of men's
hearts, and from the contradictionof sinners againsthimself, and even much
from the frowardness ofhis owndisciples; much from the temptations of
Satan, and more from the wrath and justice of God, as the surety of his
people; he was exceeding sorrowfulin the garden, when his sweatwas as it
were greatdrops of blood; and when on the cross, under the hidings of his
Father's face, under a sense ofdivine displeasure for the sins of his people,
and enduring the pains and agonies ofa shameful and an accurseddeath; he

was made up of sorrows, andgrief was familiar to him. Some render it,
"brokenwith infirmity", or "grief"F8:
and we hid as it were our faces from him; as one loathsome and abominable as
having an aversionto him, and abhorrence of him, as scorning to look at him,
being unworthy of any notice. Some render it, "he hid as it were his face from
us"F9;as conscious ofhis deformity and loathsomeness, and of his being a
disagreeable object, as they said; but the former is best:
he was despised, and we esteemedhim not; which is repeatedto show the
greatcontempt castupon him, and the disesteemhe was had in by all sorts of
persons;professors and profane, high and low, rich poor, rulers and common
people, priests, Scribes, and Pharisees;no setor order of men had any value
for him; and all this disgrace and dishonour he was to undergo, to repair the
loss of honour the Lord sustained by the sin of man, whose surety Christ
became.
Geneva Study Bible
He is despisedand rejectedby men; a man of sorrows, and acquaintedwith e
grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemedhim not.
(e) Which was by God's singular providence for the comfortof sinners,
(Hebrews 4:15).
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
rejected— “forsakenofmen” [Gesenius]. “Mostabjectof men.” Literally,
“He who ceasesfrom men,” that is, is no longer regardedas a man
[Hengstenberg]. (See on Isaiah52:14; Isaiah49:7).
man of sorrows — that is, whose distinguishing characteristic was sorrows.

acquainted with — familiar by constantcontactwith.
grief — literally, “disease”;figuratively for all kinds of calamity (Jeremiah
6:14); leprosy especiallyrepresentedthis, being a direct judgment from God.
It is remarkable Jesus is not mentioned as having ever suffered under
sickness.
and we hid … faces — rather, as one who causesmen to hide their faces from
Him (in aversion) [Maurer]. Or, “He was as an hiding of the face before it,”
that is, as a thing before which a man covers his face in disgust
[Hengstenberg]. Or, “as one before whom is the covering of the face”;before
whom one covers the face in disgust [Gesenius].
we — the prophet identifying himself with the Jews. See Horsley‘s view (see
on Isaiah 53:1).
esteemed… not — negative contempt; the previous words express positive.
Keil & DelitzschCommentary on the Old Testament
On the contrary, the impressionproduced by His appearance was rather
repulsive, and, to those who measuredthe greatand noble by a merely
worldly standard, contemptible. “He was despisedand forsakenby men; a
man of griefs, and well acquainted with disease;and like one from whom men
hide their face:despised, and we esteemedHim not.” All these different
features are predicates ofthe erat that is latent in non species ei neque decor
and non adspectus . Nibhzeh is introduced again palindromically at the close
in Isaiah's peculiar style; consequently Martini's conjecture ‫אל‬ ‫נו‬ ‫וגו‬ ‫חה‬ is to be
rejected. This nibhzeh (cf., bâzōh , Isaiah49:7) is the keynote of the
description which looks back in this plaintive tone. The predicate c hădal
'ı̄shı̄m is misunderstood by nearly all the commentators, inasmuch as they
take ‫היׁשים‬ as synonymous with ‫וני־הדם‬ , whereas it is rather used in the sense
of ‫וני־היׁש‬ (lords), as distinguished from b e nē ' âdâm , or people generally
(see Isaiah2:9, Isaiah 2:11, Isaiah 2:17). The only other passagesin which it
occurs are Proverbs 8:4 and Psalms 141:4;and in both instances it signifies
persons of rank. Hence Cocceius explains it thus: “wanting in men, i.e., having

no respectable men with Him, to support Him with their authority.” It might
also be understood as meaning the ending one among men, i.e., the one who
takes the lastplace (S. ἐλάχιστος , Jer. novissimus ); but in this case He
Himself would be describedas ‫היׁש‬ , whereas it is absolutely affirmed that He
had not the appearance ordistinction of such an one. But the rendering
deficiens (wanting) is quite correct;compare Job 19:14, “my kinsfolk have
failed” ( defecerunt, c hâd e lū , cognatimei ). The Arabic chadhalahu or
chadhala ‛anhu (also points to the true meaning; and from this we have the
derivatives c hâdhil , refusing assistance,leaving without help; and m achdhûl
, helpless, forsaken(see Lane's Arabic Lexicon ). In Hebrew, c hâdal has not
only the transitive meaning to discontinue or leave off a thing, but the
intransitive, to case orbe in want, so that c hădal 'ı̄shı̄m may mean one in
want of men of rank, i.e., finding no sympathy from such men. The chief men
of His nation who toweredabove the multitude, the greatmen of this world,
withdrew their hands from Him, drew back from Him: He had none of the
men of any distinction at His side. Moreover, He was ‫היׁש‬ ‫מכהוות‬ , a man of
sorrow of heart in all its forms, i.e., a man whose chief distinction was, that
His life was one of constantpainful endurance. And He was also ‫ידלע‬ ‫לחי‬ , that
is to say, not one known through His sickness (according to Deuteronomy
1:13, Deuteronomy1:15), which is hardly sufficient to express the genitive
construction;nor an acquaintance ofdisease (S. γνωστὸς νόσῳ , familiaris
morbo ), which would be expressedby ‫מייע‬ or ‫עדומ‬ ; but scitus morbi , i.e., one
who was placedin a state to make the acquaintance of disease. The deponent
passive ‫ירלע‬ , acquainted (like bâtuăch , confisus ; zâkbūr , mindful; peritus ,
pervaded, experienced), is supported by ‫מא־ערלע‬ ‫ה‬ ‫מילע‬ ; Gr. τί μαθών . The
meaning is not, that He had by nature a sicklybody, falling out of one disease
into another; but that the wrath instigated by sin, and the zeal of self-sacrifice
(Psalms 69:10), burnt like the fire of a fever in His souland body, so that even
if He had not died a violent death, He would have succumbed to the force of
the powers of destructionthat were innate in humanity in consequenceofsin,
and of His own self-consuming conflictwith them. Moreover, He was k e
mastēr pânı̄m m immennū . This cannot mean, “like one hiding his face from
us,” as Hengstenberg supposes (with an allusion to Leviticus 13:45);or, what
is comparatively better, “like one causing the hiding of the face from him:”
for although the feminine of the participle is written ‫מסּתרת‬ , and in the plural

‫מסּתרים‬ for ‫מסּתירים‬ is quite possible, we never meet with m astērfor m astı̄r ,
like hastērfor hastı̄r in the infinitive (Isaiah 29:15, cf., Deuteronomy 26:12).
Hence m astērmust be a noun (of the form m arbēts , m arbēq , m ashchēth);
and the words mean either “like the hiding of the face on our part,” or like
one who met with this from us, or (what is more natural) like the hiding of the
face before his presence (according to Isaiah8:17; Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 54:8;
Isaiah59:2, and many other passages), i.e., like one whose repulsive face it is
impossible to endure, so that men turn awaytheir face or coverit with their
dress (compare Isaiah50:6 with Job 30:10). And lastly, all the predicates are
summed up in the expressive word nibhzeh : He was despised, and we did not
think Him dear and worthy, but rather “esteemedHim not,” or rather did not
estimate Him at all, or as Luther expressesit, “estimatedHim at nothing” ( c
hâshabh , to reckon, value, esteem, as in Isaiah13:17; Isaiah33:8; Malachi
3:16).
The secondturn closes here. The preaching concerning His calling and His
future was not believed; but the Man of sorrows was greatlydespisedamong
us.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
He is despisedand rejectedof men; a man of sorrows, andacquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemedhim not.
We hid — We scornedto look upon him.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
3.Despisedand rejected. This verse conveys the same statement as the
preceding, namely, that Christ will be “rejected” by men, in consequenceof
their beholding in him nothing but grief and infirmity. These things neededto
be often repeated to the Jews, that they might not form a false conceptionof

Christ and his kingdom; for, in order to know his glory, we must proceed
from his death to his resurrection. Many stumble at his death, as if he had
been vanquished and overwhelmedby it; but we ought to contemplate his
powerand majesty in the resurrection;and if any one choose to begin with the
resurrection, he will not follow the order laid down by the Prophet, nor
comprehend the Lord’s strength and power.
We hid the face from him. Not without reasondoes he use the first person, we;
for he declares that there will be a universal judgment; and no man will ever
be able to comprehend it by his own understanding till the Lord correctand
form him anew by his Spirit. Although he appears chiefly to censure the Jews,
who ought not to have so haughtily rejectedthe Son of God promised and
offered to them, and therefore reckons himselfas one of the number, because
he was an individual belonging to that nation; yet let us learn from this
passagethat all men are accursedand condemned for ingratitude in despising
Christ, because they do not even considerhim to be worthy of being lookedat,
but turn awaytheir eyes as if from something detestable.
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
THE MAN OF SORROWS
‘A Man of sorrows.’
Isaiah53:3
I. His own personallife was a sorrowfulone.—He was awayfrom home, from
His Father’s presence. He was a Strangerin a strange land. From His
childhood He was full of thoughts which He could not utter, because, if
uttered, they were not understood. He was a lonely Man. His sympathy with
others by no means implied their sympathy with Him.
II. But His sorrows, like His labours, were for others.—(1)Jesus Christ
sorrowedoverbodily suffering; (2) He sorrowedovermental suffering; (3) He
sorrowedoverspiritual suffering.

III. He was a Man of sorrows also,and chiefly, in relation to sin.—(1) He had
to see sin; (2) He had to bear sin.
IV. The subject teaches (1)that if it is as a Man of sorrows that Jesus Christ
comes to us, it must be, first of all, as a memento of the fitness of sorrow to our
condition as sinful men. (2) Again, only a Man of sorrows couldbe a Saviour
for all men, and for the whole of life. (3) Sorrow, howeverdeep, has its solaces
and its compensations. (a)Whatever it be, it is of the nature of sorrow to bring
a man nearer to truth, nearerto the reality, nearer therefore to hope. (b)
Sorrow makes a man more useful. It gives him a new experience and a new
sympathy.
—DeanVaughan.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
Isaiah53:3 He is despisedand rejectedof men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was
despised, and we esteemedhim not.
Ver. 3. He is despisedand rejectedof men.] Heb., Desitus virorum, one at
whom the nature and name of man endeth; as we would say, the very lift and
fag end of mankind, nullificamen hominis, (a) a worm and no man, not held so
goodas wickedBarabbas, but crucified betweentwo thieves, as worse than
either of them, and made nothing of. [Mark 9:12] This is so plainly here set
forth that some of the Jewishdoctors, Aben Ezra for one, whenas they cannot
rightly distinguish between the two comings of Christ, the one in humility and
the other in glory, duos construunt Christos, they make us up two Christs, the
one the son of Joseph, to whom agree those things which the Scriptures speak
of concerning Christ’s meanness and sufferings; the other, the son of David, to
whom they apply those things that are written concerning the glory, majesty,
and triumphs of Christ. (b)

A man of sorrows,]q.d., Made up of sorrows. (c)Atque hic mirus artifex est
propheta; and here the prophet showethsingular skill in describing Christ’s
state of humiliation through all the degrees ofit. And faith is much happier in
finding out his cross, blood, nails, tomb, and all, than ever Helen was, or any
Popish relic monger, and in making use of them too, to better purpose than
that Popishconvent of friars do, who have hired those places of the Turk,
built temples, altars, and silver floors in honour of the passion.
And acquainted with grief.] Heb., Knowing of infirmity, or inured to it. See
Hebrews 4:15. The Greek Litany hath, "By thine unknown sorrows and
sufferings, goodLord, deliver us."
And we hid as it were our faces from him.] Or, And he hid as it were the face
from us, viz., as one for his loathsomeness, his low condition, ashamedto be
seen. The Jews, in the Talmud, (d) question, What is the name of Messiah?
Some answer, Hhenara, leprous; and he sitteth among the poor in the gates of
Rome, carrying their sicknesses.
He was despised.]Double despised;and for the unworthiness of the things,
this is repeated.
And we esteemedhim not,] i.e., We contemned and derided him.
Hawker's PoorMan's Commentary
As his person was without attraction, so the treatment he received
correspondedto it. So very ungracious was the generalabuse and contempt of
him, that he saidhimself, I am a worm, and no man; a very scornof men, and
the outcastof the people; Psalms 22:6. And they who should have

countenancedhim, blushed to own him for a time, and hid their faces from
him. W hat a subject of wonder and astonishment is all this!
Sermon Bible Commentary
Isaiah53:3
This was one of the marks by which Israelwas to know his Christ. He was to
be a Man of sorrows. The powerby which He was to draw men to Himself, the
charm by which He was to keepmen near Himself, was not to be the charm of
cheerfulness, notthe pleasantness ofHis speechor the gladness ofHis
character;it was to be just the opposite of this; it was to be His acquaintance
with grief.
I. His own personallife was a sorrowfulone. He was awayfrom home, from
His Father's presence. He was a Strangerin a strange land. From His
childhood He was full of thoughts which He could not utter, because, if
uttered, they were not understood. He was a lonely man. His sympathy with
others by no means implied their sympathy with Him.
II. But His sorrows, like His labours, were for others. (1) Jesus Christ
sorrowedoverbodily suffering; (2) He sorrowedovermental suffering; (3) He
sorrowedoverspiritual suffering.
III. He was a Man of sorrows also,and chiefly, in relation to sin. (1) He had to
see sin; (2) He had to bear sin.
IV. The subject teaches (1)that if it is as a Man of sorrows that Jesus Christ
comes to us, it must be, first of all, as a memento of the fitness of sorrow to our
condition as sinful men. (2) Again, only a Man of sorrows couldbe a Saviour
for all men, and for the whole of life. (3) Sorrow, howeverdeep, has its solaces
and its compensations. (a)Whatever it be, it is of the nature of sorrow to bring
a man nearer to truth, nearerto reality, nearertherefore to hope. (b) Sorrow
makes a man more useful. It gives him a new experience and a new sympathy.
V. The question remains, How do we stand, we ourselves, in reference to this
Saviour?

C. J. Vaughan, Christ the Light of the World, p. 88.
I. In trying to bring into view some of the leading sorrows ofour Lord's life, it
is impossible not to begin with one which lay at the bottom of them all—that,
namely, which arose from His close contactwiththe sin and defilement of this
fallen and guilty world. The fact of our Lord's becoming a man involved the
necessityofHis living in immediate contactwith what of all things in the
universe was the most repulsive, hateful, and horrible to His soul. No doubt
there were many beautiful things in the world, and even in men's lives, that
could not but interestHim; but there was an awful drawback in the case of
all. It was a world in arms againstits Lord, a world divorced from its God.
II. The sorrow of unrequited love. "He came to His own and His own received
Him not." There is something very sadin the repulse of a generous love and a
love that seekstruly and disinterestedly the welfare of those loved; and we
learn from Scripture that the rejectionof His loving offers cut very deeply
into the heart of Jesus.
III. A third grief arose from what is called, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the
contradiction of sinners againstHimself. He had to endure a greatamount of
keen, active opposition, often of a peculiarly trying kind. Looking at the
number and variety of His enemies, He might have said, "They compassedMe
about like bees." Hardly ever did He undertake an unembarrassedjourney,
or spend an easyhour. The contradictionof sinners became only more intense
the longerHe laboured. And it was the more trying because it was so
successful.
IV. Among the sorrows of Jesus we notice, next, those which came from the
infirmities of His owndisciples. (1) There were vexations arising from their
want of understanding, want of sympathy with Him in the great purposes of
His life. (2) There were disappointments arising from their want of faith and
of the courage offaith.
V. The lastof the specialgriefs of Jesus was the sorrow of His last conflict; the
grief, so peculiar and so intense, of what He often called His hour. It is

apparent, from all the records of His life, that our blessedLord looked
forward to His last span of life as one of peculiar horror. At this solemn crisis
of His life, more than at any other part of it, it was His lot to feel the position
of the sinbearerand the scapegoat—the positionof one who stood in the
sinner's place and bore the sinner's doom. It was then that God said, "Awake,
O sword, againstMy shepherd, and againstthe man that is My fellow."
W. G. Blaikie, Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our Lord, p. 151.
I. There is an instance in Scripture, but we believe it stands alone, of Christ
feeling and displaying gladness ofspirit. A solitary exception there is to the
melancholy description, "A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" and
by examining the exceptionwe may get clearerviews of the generalcharacter
of Christ's sufferings. "In that hour Jesus rejoicedin spirit"—an hour in
which there had been given Him suchproofs of the prevalent power of His
name as assuredHim that through His sacrifice the kingdom of Satanwould
be finally demolished. In that hour the Saviour forgot the load of His griefs,
and beheld Himself through His sacrifice exaltedas a conqueror. For a
moment He saw "the travail of His souland was satisfied."
II. Christ seems to make it matter of thanksgiving that the Gospelhad been
"hid from the wise and prudent and revealedonly to babes." And surprise
might naturally be felt at this. Could the joy of the Redeemerhave sprung
from the thought that any were to perish? Is it not strange that an instance
like this—an instance in which gladness is associatedwith anything so fearful
as the everlasting destruction of the proud and self-sufficient—thatthis
should be the single recordedexceptionto the accuracyof the melancholy
description setforth in our text? It cannotbe that Christ gave thanks because
His gospelwas hid from the wise and prudent; but He rejoices that though
God had hid these things from the wise and prudent, He had nevertheless
revealedthem unto babes. Why might not the Saviour give thanks that the
propagationof His gospelwas to be such as would secure the honour of His
Father? When with prophetic glance He lookedonwardto the struggle of His
Church, and saw that in every land and in every age there would flow in

multitudes of the mean and illiterate, while those excluded would be, for the
most part, the mighty and the learned—excludedonly because too proud to
enter; and when He thought how God would prevent the glorying of any flesh
in His presence by thus choosing the weak things of the world to confound the
mighty, and the foolishthings to confound the wise, and thus out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings perfecting praise,—we know not why He might
not, in perfectconsistencewith that love which embraced every child of man,
rejoice in the prospect on which He gazed—ay, though this rejoicing was the
single exception to that intense, that ever overpressing sadnesswhichis
indicated in the emphatic and plaintive description of our text—"A Man of
sorrows, andacquainted with grief."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2331.
References:Isaiah53:3.—W. Brock, Penny Pulpit, No. 693;G. Brooks,
Outlines of Sermons, p. 79;D. Davies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p.
53; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1099;Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p.
336;J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 102;R. Milman, The Love of the
Atonement, pp. 117, 138, 150, 171,183, 202.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
He is despisedand rejectedof men; accountedas the scum of mankind, as one
unworthy of the company and conversationof all men.
A man of sorrows;whose whole life was filled with, and in a manner made up
of, an uninterrupted successionofsorrows and sufferings.
Acquainted with grief; who had constantexperience of and familiar converse
with grievous afflictions; for knowledge is oft takenpractically, or for
experience, as Genesis 3:5 2 Corinthians 5:21, and elsewhere.
We hid as it were our faces from him; we scornedand loathedto look upon
him. Or, as others,

he hid as it were his face from us, as one ashamedto show his face, or to be
seenby any men, as persons conscious to themselves ofany greatdeformity do
commonly shun the sight of men, as lepers did, Leviticus 13:45.
He was despised, and we esteemedhim not: here are divers words expressing
the same thing, to signify both the utmost degree ofcontempt, and how
strange and wonderful a thing it was, that so excellenta person should be so
despised.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
‘He was despisedand rejectedby men,
A man of sorrows, and humiliated by grief,
And as one from whom men hide their face,
He was despisedand we esteemedhim not.’
He will not only be unattractive humanly speaking, but also despisedand
rejected. When He reveals Himself men will laugh and deride (compare the
use of the root of ‘despised’ in Isaiah 37:22), they will sneerat Him, they will
dismiss His words and His claims. He will be written off by ‘those who know’
as a charlatan.
‘Rejectedby men.’ The verb translated ‘rejected’means transient, fleeting,
lacking, and therefore not up to standard in men’s eyes.
‘A man of sorrows,and humiliated by grief.’ He will walk sorrowfully and in
grief. ForHe bears in Himself the knowledge thatmen are rejecting His
Father, and the means of their own salvation. He will grieve at the hardness of
men’s hearts (Mark 3:5). He will carry the burden of the world (Mark 8:12).
The verb yatha‘ (‘to know’) canalso mean ‘to be humiliated’ as witnessedat
Ugarit.
The reference is not to a gloomy personby nature, but to One Who faces a
world of gloom. It is intended to be in contrastwith the idea of royalty as
pleasure seekersand hedonists. Notso this One, for He has come to deal with

the needs of the world and He sees them as they are, and bears their burden
on His shoulders.
‘And as one from whom men hide their face, He was despisedand we
esteemedHim not.’ Literally ‘there was as it were a hiding of face from Him’.
Men will be ashamedto be aligned with Him, they will keepawayfrom His
company for fear of what the world might say (John 6:66; John 7:13; John
12:42. Even Nicodemus came by night - John 3:2). Thus was He despisedand
not given the esteemthat was His due. And besides He did not fit the expected
pattern (John 7:12; John 7:27; John 7:35).
So He will come from a poor background, He will not be striking to look at,
He will not wearclothes of majesty, He will not be highly esteemed, He will
not be a pleasure seekerbut serious minded, He will not fit into men’s
preconceptions. All this is a condemnation of how men think, and illustrates
their false sense ofvalues. Forthose who knew Him and gave Him a fair
hearing recognisedHis worth, and listened, and humbled themselves before
Him. And that was how God saw Him. Man looks at the outward appearance,
God looks atthe heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
It was from this that Satanwould tempt Him to free Himself (Matthew 4:1-
11). If He were but to saythe word He could be lifted out from it in a moment.
He could insteadreceive the kingdoms of the world. Had he not come to
receive a Kingdom? Yes, but it was to be receivedthrough humiliation.
Expository Notes ofDr. Thomas Constable
The English word "despised" carries strong emotionalovertones, but its
Hebrew source means to be consideredworthless and unworthy of attention.
The Servant would not be the objectof scorn, Isaiah meant, though He was
that ( Mark 10:33-34;Luke 18:31-33), as much as He would be hastily
dismissed. One writer believed the primary meaning is that the Servant would
provoke abhorrence.

"No personin the history of the Jews has provokedsuch deep-seated
abhorrence as He who came only to bless them, and who even on the cross
prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ... And all
through the centuries no name has provoked such intense abhorrence among
the Jews as the name of Jesus." [Note:Baron, p74.]
People would rejectHim because they would not see Him as having any
significance for them ( Isaiah6:10; John 1:10-11;John 12:37-41). They would
not give Him a secondlook.
"The chief men of His nation who toweredabove the multitude, the greatmen
of this world, withdrew their hands from Him, drew back from Him: He had
none of the men of any distinction at His side." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:314.]
People would also avoid the Servant because He would appear to them as one
who had His own problems. Since He knew pain and grief, others would
conclude that He was not in a position to help them. He would appear to them
as a loser, and who goes to a loserfor help or looks to one for leadership? This
description does not mean that the Servant would always be sickly and
morose (cf. Isaiah1:5-6). It means that the way He presentedHimself would
not leadpeople to look to Him for strength.
"When all that the human eye saw and the human mind apprehended was
added up the result was zero." [Note:Motyer, p429.]
"Thus the revelation of the arm of the Lord that will deliver the Lord"s
people is met with shock, astonishment, distaste, dismissal, and avoidance.
Such a one as this canhardly be the one who canset us free from that most

pervasive of all human bondages:sin, and all its consequences. To a world
blinded by selfishness and power, he does not even merit a secondthought."
[Note:Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66 , p384.]
People typically disregardthose who suffer as they serve the Lord, as they
continue to despise and rejectthe Servant.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
Not. The whole life of Christ was spent in the midst of poverty, and
contradictions, Hebrews iv. 15. He has thus taught us to despise ourselves.
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
despisedand rejected. Fulfilled in John 1:10, John 1:11; John 8:48; John
10:20.
men. Hebrew, plural of "ish. App-14. = the chief men. Compare John 7:48,
John 7:49.
man. Hebrew. "ish. App-14.
we hid. Compare Isaiah 50:6. Psalms 22:6, Psalms 22:7; and John 8:48; Mark
3:21, Mark 3:30. John 18:40.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
He is despisedand rejectedof men; a man of sorrows, andacquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemedhim not.

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