Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Isa. 53:1–4 (ESV)
Lord Jesus, your manger was a veritable garden of grace, for there the Father planted you as the tender shoot of Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 11:1; 10). Hallelujah, you are root of life that has broken through the dry ground of our fallen world, for the flourishing of our hearts and all creation.
I am in awe this morning at the sacrificial tenderness of birth, and your death. “Born that men no more may die”; died that we might fully live. You created beauty, yet you became the one with “no beauty,” for us. You took the vileness and ugliness of our sin, that we might become pure and beautiful in you. O holy merciful mystery. Though you have always enjoyed the delight of the Godhead, you became the despised one—the rejected one for us, for me. What wondrous love is this, indeed?
You—the fountain of pleasures, whose laughter fills heaven, whose joy is our strength; you became the man of suffering and sorrows for us. And though you didn’t remain a “tender shoot,” you have retained all tenderness. In taking up your cross, you took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; you bore our guilt and exhausted our judgment—once and for all. What a wonderful, merciful, tender Savior you are, indeed, Lord Jesus.
O to esteem and love, worship and serve you as you deserve. May your tenderness grow in our hearts, families, and churches. So very Amen I pray, in your beautiful and grace-full name.