DISCOURSE: 967
THE CHARACTERS AND TREATMENT OF THE MESSIAH
Isaiah 53:2-3. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness: and, when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
WE find in almost every branch of science, that truth can be discovered only by deep and serious investigation. If we rest in superficial inquiries, we shall be led into numberless and fatal mistakes. In what relates to religion more especially, an impartial examination is necessary, because the doctrines of revelation are confessedly repugnant both to the prejudices and passions of mankind. Yet, strange as it may appear, there is no other science, wherein men form their opinions on such slender information, as in that. The generality adopt the notions that are current in their day, without ever considering whether they be right or wrong: the natural consequence of which is, that, in many instances, they embrace error in preference to truth. This was too much the habit of the Jews in reference to their Messiah. Our Lord had cautioned them not to judge according to appearance, but to judge righteous judgment; nevertheless they paid more attention to received opinions than to the oracles of God. Had they searched the Scriptures, they might have found that their expected Messiah was to suffer as well as to triumph: but they, thinking only of a temporal deliverer, despised the low condition of Jesus, and made his humiliation a ground of rejecting him. That such would be their conduct, the prophet had foretold in the words before us; wherein he assigns the low estate of Jesus as the very ground, on which the united testimony of Prophets and Apostles should be discredited.
In the words themselves he sets forth,
First, Some marks and characters of the Messiah, and, Secondly, The treatment he should meet with in the world.
I. The marks and characters given of the Messiah were not only exceeding various, but apparently inconsistent with each other; and they were multiplied in the prophetic writings, in order that, when the Messiah should appear, there should be no room to question his divine mission; since the marks themselves could not have been combined by chance, nor would have been invented by any one, who had desired to impose upon the world.
Confining ourselves to those specified in the text, we observe, that he was to be obscure in his origin. This is intimated under the figure of “a root out of a dry ground.” The house of David had once flourished as the cedars of Lebanon; (he himself having been one of the most powerful monarchs upon earth) but now his family was reduced; insomuch that it was like “a root” or mere stump of a tree. Its situation too, like a “root in a dry ground,” was such, as not to afford any prospect that it should ever revive again. Our Lord, like a weak and tender sucker, sprang from this root, and was, to all outward appearance, unworthy of notice. Notwithstanding the prodigies that attended his birth, and the regard paid to them for a little while, “he grew up before him,” that is, before the Jewish people, in obscurity, working at the trade of his reputed father as a carpenter. This circumstance proved an offence, and a stumbling-block to the carnal Jews: when they heard his discourses, and saw the wonders that he wrought, they said, “Whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given to him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter? And they were offended at him.” But, if they had duly considered their own prophecies, they would have seen, that his parentage and education were precisely such as had been foretold, and consequently were arguments in favour of his high pretensions.
Another mark exhibited in the text is, that he was to be mean in his appearance. The Jews expected a Messiah who should come with pomp, and whose magnificence should equal, if not surpass, that of any potentate on earth: and if Jesus had appeared in this manner, he would soon have been caressed and followed by the whole nation. But he neither possessed himself, nor promised to his followers, any of those things which are so captivating to a carnal heart. Instead of abounding in wealth, and having the great and nobles of the earth as his attendants, he was followed only by a few poor fishermen, and sometimes wanted the common necessaries of life, and even a place where to lay his head. Instead of affecting honour, he declined it, and withdrew himself, when they would have invested him with royal authority. Nor did he give his disciples reason to expect any thing in this world but reproaches, persecutions, imprisonments, and death. Thus was he destitute of all external recommendations; “there was no form nor comeliness in him, nor any beauty for which he was to be desired.” Now the Jews did not know how to reconcile his claims to Messiahship with his low condition: they could not divest themselves of their prejudices: they expected a temporal Messiah, and consequently concluded, that the meanness of his appearance was a very sufficient reason for considering him as an impostor. They therefore contributed to make him still more contemptible in the eyes of men, and thus, by reducing him to the lowest state of infamy, unwittingly fulfilled the counsels of God concerning him.
A third mark and character of the Messiah was, that he should be afflicted in his person; he was to be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” To none were these words ever so applicable as to Jesus Christ. His whole life was a continued scene of labours, trials, temptations, sorrows. We read only once in the whole Scriptures, that he rejoiced in spirit; but frequently that he sighed, and groaned, and wept. The four last years of his life were almost wholly spent in sorrow. Not to mention his bodily labours and fatigues, or his watchings and fastings (though inasmuch as they exceeded all that ever were voluntarily endured by man, they might well be taken into the account) his other trials were greater than we can conceive. “The contradiction of sinners against himself” must have been inexpressibly painful to his benevolent mind. He had come down from heaven to give his own life a ransom for them; and was continually endeavouring to lead them to the knowledge of himself, that they might obtain salvation through him: he was working a series of the most stupendous miracles in confirmation of his word: he was labouring day and night for their sakes, making it his very meat and drink to accomplish the grand ends and purposes of his mission: yet, how were his labours requited? they cavilled at his words, ascribed his miracles to Satanic influence, and rejected the counsel of God against themselves. How grievous must this have been to him, whose whole soul was bent on their salvation! This caused him frequently to groan in spirit, and even to weep in the midst of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. But there were yet other sources of grief, more afflictive, if possible, than this. Whence arose his agony in the garden, when his body was bathed in a bloody sweat? Whence those “strong cryings and tears,” with which he supplicated the removal of the bitter cup? Whence the heart-rending cry, which he uttered on the cross under the hidings of his Father’s face? Surely the vials of his Father’s wrath were poured out upon him; the debt which we had incurred, was exacted of him as our surety; the penalty due to sin was inflicted on his righteous soul; “the arrows of the Almighty stuck fast in him, and made his heart within him like melting wax.” There was yet another thing which must of necessity greatly aggravate his sorrows; namely, his perfect foresight of all that should come upon him. In mercy to us futurity is hid from our eyes; so that, however great our calamities be, we are comforted with a hope, that our state will soon be ameliorated. He, on the contrary, saw the crisis gradually approaching, and knew the full extent of those miseries which he was about to endure. What but the most unbounded love could carry him forward under such a load as this?
To the eye of sense indeed, this unparalleled “acquaintance with grief” would appear strange and unaccountable: but to the view of faith, it marked him as the chosen of God, the Redeemer of the world.
This subject will be yet more fully illustrated by considering,
II.
The reception he met with—
One would scarcely suppose it possible, that such a person as our Lord should sojourn upon earth, and not be universally respected. His exemplary piety, his diffusive benevolence, his instructive discourses, and his blameless conduct, one would think, must conciliate the esteem of all; and that gratitude at least must bind to him many thousands, whose maladies he had healed, or whose friends he had relieved. But, to the shame of human nature be it spoken, all, whom he had benefited, seemed to have forgotten their obligations, and to vie with each other in rendering evil for good: so far from honouring him, they despised and rejected him, and even “hid their faces from him,” as not deigning to acknowledge him. There was no name so opprobrious, but they thought him deserving of it: they called him a glutton and a wine-bibber, a deceiver and demoniac. Before the high-priest they accused him of blasphemy: and before the Roman governor they charged him with treason; that so they might secure his condemnation, and have licence to treat him as an enemy both of God and man. The indignities offered him in the last hours of his life were altogether unparalleled: it was indeed the hour of Satan’s reign, and all the powers of darkness seemed to be let loose upon him. It appeared as if nothing could satiate their malice: not content to wait the issue of a legal process, they loaded him with all manner of insults and reproaches: they dragged him from one tribunal to another; they ploughed up his back with scourges, and compelled his judge to pass sentence upon him contrary to the convictions of his own conscience: they forced him, faint and macerated as he was, to bear his cross, till he even sunk under the weight; and, to complete the whole, they crucified him between two thieves; and continued their impious derision till the very instant of his dissolution. Nay, they were not even then satisfied; even after he was dead, they could not refrain from shewing their hatred of him: one of the soldiers, expressing doubtless the feelings of others as well as his own, officiously thrust his spear into his side: and all the chief priests and Pharisees made application to Pilate, that he would set a guard to watch that deceiver, as they called him, lest his disciples should come by night and steal him away, and report that he had risen from the dead. Thus did the whole nation “despise and reject him.” Every other part of the creation gave testimony to him: the wild beasts in the wilderness stood in awe of him; the fishes of the sea confessed his power; the winds and the waves obeyed his voice; the holy angels ministered unto him; the very devils acknowledged his divine mission: but men, the men too of his own nation, the very men whom he came to redeem, rejected him; “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
Happy would it have been if their contempt of Christ had terminated here: but, alas! it continued unextinguished and unabated, even after he had proved his divine mission by his resurrection from the dead, and had sent down the Holy Ghost to attest his word. They could indeed no longer vent their spleen against his person, because he was far above out of their reach; but they beat his messengers, reviled his doctrines, and opposed to the uttermost the success of his gospel. No means were left untried: they used every species of persecution, that they might deter men from embracing his religion: they excommunicated, imprisoned, and murdered his followers: and, though God was pleased to convert a remnant of them, the bulk of the nation contradicted and blasphemed the gospel, till they had filled up the measure of their iniquities.
But must we confine this accusation to the people of that age and nation? Alas! where is the nation that has not poured contempt on Christ? The Apostles and other disciples of our Lord went to every quarter of the known world, and preached Jesus as the Saviour of men: but in every place did the glad tidings meet with the same reception. Even where the word was most successful, the great majority rejected it with disdain. And how has it been received amongst us? Blessed be God! we are not left wholly without witness; but the generality despise and reject Christ, as much as ever the Jews did in the days of his flesh. He is not indeed exposed to their outrage; they cannot scourge and buffet him as once they did; but there are many other ways wherein they no less virulently express their contempt of him. With what pertinacity do many controvert the divinity of his person, the reality of his atonement, and the efficacy of his grace! And what is this but to deny the Lord that bought them? Again, what is more common than for persons to rely upon their own repentance and reformation for acceptance with God, instead of trusting simply in his blood and righteousness? and what is this, but to rob him of his glory, and exclude him from the office, which he came to execute? Can any thing be more contemptuous than this? Again, he has given us commandments, in obeying which we are to testify our regard to him, and to honour him in the world. But who yields to his authority? Who brings his thoughts and actions into captivity to his will? Is not the language of the generality at least, “We will not have this man to reign over us?” To what purpose is it to say, Lord, Lord! if we do not the things which he says? It is only to act over again the part of those who bowed the knee to him, und yet smote him on the face. Indeed, all despise him, who do not value him as they ought. If we viewed him in his real character, we should see a beauty in him for which he is to be desired; we should “behold his glory, as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father;” he would appear to us “fairer than ten thousand, and altogether lovely;” and the language of our hearts would be, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” But how few are there who thus “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ!” Yet they, who do not thus regard him, have no just sense of his worth and excellence, and therefore in reality under-value and despise him.
We cannot better IMPROVE this subject than by observing—
1.
What enmity there is in the heart of man against God!
The Apostle of the Gentiles has told us, that “the carnal and unrenewed mind is enmity against God.” This indeed is a hard saying: but we have abundant proof of the truth of it in the subject we have been considering. We have evidence enough of it in the general forgetfulness of God, and the opposition to his will which prevails in the world. But, in the instance before us, an experiment has been made; an experiment which removes all doubt, and proves indisputably, how men would treat God, if they had him in their power. God has, for the accomplishment of his own gracious purposes, condescended to clothe himself in human flesh, and to sojourn among men. He assumed nothing of the pomp and splendour of this world, that the attachment or aversion of men might the more evidently appear to arise from their discovery of his true character. He dazzled not their eyes by a full display of his Deity, but suffered the rays of it occasionally to appear, as their organs of vision were able to bear it. He admitted them so close to him, that they might easily contemplate his proper character, and form a rational judgment of his excellencies and perfections. By this he gave them an opportunity of testifying what were the dispositions of their minds towards him. And what was the result of the experiment? Did they love him, admire him, and adore him as God? Behold, they could “see no form nor comeliness in him.” On the contrary, they hated him, despised him, and crucified him as a male-factor. Nor was this owing to the violence of a few: the whole nation rose up against him, and put him to death. Now this shews us in the clearest light, what human nature is, and what enmity there is in the heart of man against God. And O! what a humiliating thought is it, that we should be even capable of such atrocious wickedness! If any one object, that this was done by the Jews; and that, if God were to come down amongst us, he would meet with a more suitable reception; we reply, That in whatever place he should appear, he would assuredly be treated in the same way: for indeed he does come; he comes to us in the preaching of his Gospel: he is truly, though not visibly, amongst us; for he has said, “Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world:” yet, so far from admiring his beauty, and adoring his goodness, we scarcely bestow a thought upon him; yea, instead of seeking our happiness in him, and devoting ourselves wholly to his service, there is no possession so contemptible, but we prefer it before him, nor any lust so base, but we choose the indulgence of it rather than his favour.
Let this melancholy truth sink down into our hearts, and cause us to lothe ourselves in dust and ashes. Nor let us ever rest, till our enmity be slain, and our aversion to him be turned into reverence and love.
In contrast with this, let us next observe—
2.
What love there is in the heart of God towards man!
Had God foreseen that his creatures would have instantly and universally adored him, we must have for ever marvelled at the love that induced him to become incarnate. But how transcendent does that love appear, when we consider that he foresaw the treatment he should meet with, and that, as he died for his very murderers, so he now invites to mercy the most contemptuous of his enemies! Let heaven and earth stand amazed! and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy name for ever and ever!