'Despised and Avoided by Men'

Isaiah now begins to describe in detail how the Messiah will be viewed and treated:  "He was despised and was avoided by men, a man meant for pains and for having acquaintance with sickness. And there was as if the concealing of one's face from us. He was despised, and we held him as of no account." (Isaiah 53:3) Certain that his words will come true, Isaiah writes in the past tense, as if they had already been fulfilled. Was Jesus Christ really despised and avoided by men?  Indeed, he was!  self-righteous religious leaders and their followers viewed him as the vilest of humans.  They called him a friend of tax collectors and harlots.  (Luke 7:34, 37-39)  They spit in his face. They hit him with their fists and reviled him. They sneered  and jeered at him.  (Matthew 26:67)  Influenced by these enemies of truth, Jesus' own people did not take him in." -John 1:10, 11.

As a perfect man, Jesus did not get sick.  Yet, he was "a man meant for pains and for having acquaintance with sickness."  Such pains and sicknesses were not his own.  Jesus came from heaven and into a sick world.  He lived amid suffering and pain, but he did not shun those who were ailing, either physically or spiritually. Like a caring physician, he became  intimately acquainted  with the suffering of those around him.  Moreover, he was able to do what no ordinary human physician can do. -Luke 5:27-32.

Nevertheless, Jesus' enemies viewed him as the ailing one and refused to look upon him with favor.  His face was 'concealed' from view but not because he did his face from others.  In rendering Isaiah 53:3, The New English Bible uses the phrase "a thing from which men turn away their eyes."  Jesus' opposers found him so revolting that they, in effect, turned away from him as if he were too loathesome to look upon. They reckoned  his worth at no more than the price of a slave.  (Exodus 21:32;  Matthew 26:14-16)  They had less esteem  for him than for the murderer Barabbas.  (Luke 23:18-25)  What more could they have done to demonstrate their low opinion of Jesus? 

Jehovah's servants today can derived much comfort from Isaiah's words. At times, opposers may disdain faithful worshipers of Jehovah or treat them as if they were of no account. Yet, as was true with Jesus, what really matters is how Jehovah God values us. After all, even though men 'held Jesus as of no account,' this certainly did not change his value in God's eyes!

Next time: "Pierced for Our Transgression"

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, Volume II, 2001