Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? 2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him. 3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants.He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. 12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
we can think of all the things we blame on having low self esteem.. promiscuity.. drugs... lack of initiative to work or provide.. depression.. anger... resentment...
truly... Jesus did not have high self esteem.. he did not pick up his divinity and power and use it to his benefit.. everything that he had at his disposal.. he could easily have risen above man and taken power.. he could have chosen to stop man from coming against him.. but he laid down his entire life.. he lived as a servant.. without love.. without family.. to continue to give and save those around him but also for generations to come...
we often refuse to be a martyr.. we refuse to truly be a servant.. we refuse to lay down our own lives of comfort and give peace and joy to someone else in place of us having it... honestly.. we are unwilling to give up a day a month and do community service at maybe a soup kitchen or a shelter... we are selfish and constantly building ourselves up to say all that we are worth.. in truth.. if we died today.. how many lives would we have impacted? would 20 people be able to say that we represented Christ for them? are our actions and words a replica of the life of Christ...
our value needs to come from how God sees us.. not how man sees us.. we work so hard to please man and all the while shoving God to the side or the bottom.. never giving him our first fruits in action or finance or even in words... if our value came from God.. from what God sees in us.. wouldn't we then be willing to lay down our own desires and live for others.. even though this is not the popular plan.. it is the life of Christ and should be the life of each one of us.. this is what our children should be able to remember in us... this is what others should say about us when we are gone.. if Christ was crushed for God's good will.. what would make us imagine we would not be...
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