Jesus knew Grief
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” the prophet Isaiah asks (Isa. 53:1). The promise of salvation had gone out. God’s mighty arm—His power to redeem—was being revealed. But no one could have imagined that it would come this way. Weakness, obscurity, rejection, sorrow—this is how God chose to unveil His strength. The mighty arm of the Lord would be extended not in conquest but in crucifixion. The Servant of the Lord “grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground” (v. 2), not like a towering oak or conquering king. There was no majesty, no spectacle, no beauty that would draw the eye. Nothing in Him looked like deliverance. He was common—so common that we despised and dismissed Him. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (v. 3). This should make the beleaguered, sorrowful sufferer pause. This promised Christ didn’t come to observe our pain from afar. He came t...