5th Tuesday of Lent (March 19). Of no account

Prepare to Listen.  He was despised, and we held him of no account.
 
Prayerfully Read Isaiah 53:1-3
Who has believed what we have heard?
   And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For 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,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by others;
   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him of no account.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Most of us can’t help reading these verses with Jesus and the gospel story in view, even though we know the prophet wasn’t thinking about Jesus.  Where do you see Jesus in these few verses?  Is it the Jesus you follow?
 
The message begins with two unanswered questions: “Who has believed what we have heard?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD [God’s power] been revealed?”  Unless God’s power, God’s arm has been revealed, the answer to these questions is, “No one.”  And, if the Lord’s servant comes in the humiliating circumstances described in this poem, in hidden power, which Jesus did, we need a revelation from God to believe.
 
Jesus didn’t come as an attractive, populist leader.  The Isaiah poet describes him in very unattractive terms—a root out of dry ground, no form or majesty, nothing to make us notice and desire his company, let alone his leadership.  “This is one of the little ones, surely of no consequence.”[1]  He wouldn’t appear on our grandstands or popular TV shows.  He wouldn’t raise millions of dollars for his cause.  Instead, as the alto, in a minor key, sings in Handel’s Messiah, “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”  Isaiah adds more—people hid from him, didn’t want to be seen associating with him.  They “held him of no account.”  We know today that this describes Jesus exactly.  He was despised and rejected.
 
If this despised Servant came to your town today, would you want to be seen with him?  Or would you too hold him “of no account” and follow a more popular and attractive leader?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Help me resist the populist candidates and follow Jesus, the least popular, because only you, O Lord have the power to save us all.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Be courageous and follow the despised one, Jesus.
[1] Brueggemann, Walter.  Isaiah 40-66.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 1998, p. 145.