Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


10.18.2004  

Ichabod

"For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should be attracted to Him."



In light of my post from yesterday, I found that verse very thought-provoking. The thought that Christ, in His infinite splendor and majesty, should not only become a mere man without "stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him" is one that I cannot properly fathom. His appearance alone ought to be enough to cause us to fall to our knees, either in worshipful awe or terrified horror. Part of the very essence He had as God was the fact that He emanated glory and majesty; His very form was stately! Yet, in donning the sinful flesh of man, He walked upon the earth without His stately form and majesty.



Quite honestly, I sit here dumbfounded.



Jesus Christ was God from all eternity, the Word who created all things for Himself, who did nothing without glory. Yet here Isaiah clearly says that His appearance was such that we should not be attracted to Him. The glory and splendor of Christ is not something one can be impartial to! Yet here we are in Isaiah 53, and Christ is said to be without majesty. The God of all the universe, the Creator, the Word, without majesty. Why?



That's an answer that's often far too easily found upon my lips. I know in my head the answer to that question, along with several others this verse raises. But to what end? Am I shocked at the infinite beauty of Christ that was temporarily dimmed? Am I horrified at the weight of my sin upon His sinless shoulders? Do I consider just how deep a sacrifice it was for the Father, to put His own Son in sinful flesh, knowing and intending full well the unimaginable pain such an act would lead to? The beauty of Christ is not as sweet to my scarred soul unless I first drink deeply of the tear-filled cup my sin has prepared for me, namely, the realization that my sin led to the loss of Christ's stately form and majesty. Forget for a moment that Christ even died upon the cross; the fact that He became in appearance as a man, visible and tangible to us, with a presence that did not strike us dead, is a beautiful mystery in and of itself. It is a mystery that I pass over far too quickly on my way to the cross, forgetting that that truth is an intrinsic part of the beauty of the cross.



So yeah...before I answer that question, I'd like to meditate on it...I think I need to. Perhaps I'll realize that my original answer wasn't really good enough to begin with :)

posted by Bolo | 11:40 PM
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