Introduction
Today, we will be leaving the gospels and looking at an Old Testament Messianic passage. A Messianic passage is a section of scripture in the Old Testament in which God shines light on the coming Messiah, giving people a view of what is to come. We will be doing this from time to time because, really, the whole of the Bible is about Jesus. I remember when my mentor first shared this passage with me and what a huge insight into the growing-up years of Jesus it was for me. In Isaiah, we get a great description of the Messiah that may be unlike anything you would expect! There are great things to be learned, so let’s start exploring.
Reading [You can read as much as you can, depending on your availability]
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Meditating [Use these questions to start your thinking]
- What were some of Jesus’ physical attributes? In what other ways does this passage show Jesus’ humanity?
- How do you see the deity of Jesus in these verses?
- How did Jesus suffer, perhaps even as a teenager?
- What other questions do you still have?
Sharing: Text ONE of your answers to the questions above to your team. Each team should post a sharing from a team member in the comments below.
Did you catch the new name for Jesus in the first verse of chapter 53? The “arm of the Lord” — wow, what a mental image! I see God the Father reaching down to Earth, extending His arm, and that arm is Jesus. God the Creator extends His arm to me in friendship. When I was His enemy and far from Him, He took the first step to reach down in love to give friendship and reconciliation through Jesus. Unbelievable! This passage starts out by talking about the fact that Jesus would grow up in the dry ground of Israel. It was dry in the spiritual sense with hard ground and people with hearts hardened to God. Jesus came to earth and grew up in the midst of a generation hardened to the things of God.
In this passage we get a close-up of what Jesus will look like physically. Did you catch it? Read it again.
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him” (Isa. 53:2).
Jesus wasn’t beautiful to look at, nor did he have a grand nature, meaning no nose in the air, no strut like a prince raised in a palace, no kingly pomp. He was just an ordinary guy with an ordinary walk. Yes, he was still a king — the King of Kings. Jesus was royalty, but He left all that behind to become like us in every way. “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in all things” (Heb. 2:17). He was like us in that He grew up as a baby, went through puberty, made it through the middle school and high school of His day. He was an extraordinary person in an ordinary, everyday body of a Jewish male.
He had “nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). Wow — a less than-attractive picture of the coming Messiah. There was nothing about Jesus’ physical appearance that made him stand out. No Hollywood Jesus here with long, flowing blond hair, blue eyes, long legs, perfectly manicured nails, six-pack and highly toned athletic physique. He was just an ordinary guy, physically speaking. Also, Jesus probably looked like Mary, but how about Joseph? What physical qualities did Jesus possess from His earthly dad? He may have looked a lot like His mum and little like His dad. Do you think that went unnoticed by a bunch of high school guys? Let me assure you after 25 years in youth ministry, high school guys would not have missed this one. I can only imagine the teasing Jesus took, if not rejection, for His looks. There was nothing special about His physique.
But why? Why would God put His Son in an ordinary body? Why not give him an Arnold Schwarzenegger physique? In a world that can be obsessed with physically beautiful people, maybe God wanted to remind us that, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
How did Jesus suffer, perhaps even as a teenager?
Jesus probably suffered as a teenager as well because He knew how the story was going to end for Him as well as having to bear living to a perfect standard which none of us could do.