“He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”

Isaiah 53:1-3

“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Isaiah 53:1

Any follower of Jesus Christ today is asking that question as we share the message of the Cross, “Who has believed our report? We speak of the need for the forgiveness of sins and unbelief and of the promise of eternal life, and we see that we are a voice speaking out into an open, expansive, and fruitless desert. We are the John the Babtist of today’s world, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,”’ John 1:23

We have to wonder, “…to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” To whom has the Salvation of Jesus Christ been revealed? Who in this world has reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and are now living in the presence of the Holy Spirit? We would be hard-pressed to be able to mention anyone!

We have to remember that eleven of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ were murdered for preaching the message of the Cross, and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. They all died before they had the chance to die of natural causes. Only one died of natural causes, and that was John, who lived to be in his 90^s. Any one of them, in their short lives, would have been astounded to see that the fruit of their labor has reached places that they had never even realized existed. The Gospel of Christ was planted around a relatively very small region throughout the Roman Empire and is now on all seven continents all around the world. If only they could have seen the answer to the question, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Today, the great falling away from Jesus Christ has happened on all seven continents, as described in the post on 2 Thessalonians 2.

The map below on the left shows where the Gospel of Jesus Christ had reached in the days of the Apostles. The global map on the right is where the message of the Cross has reached today. The tiny red circle on the map to the right is the region shown on the map to the left. “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-7

“For He will grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.” Isaiah 53:2a.

Our Lord Jesus Christ grew up as a tender plant in a very hardened world. He sprouted up within a world that had been spiritually corrupted in heart and mind, the word of God had been corrupted, and the prophecies of the Bible were unrecognizable about the nature of His coming. Very few had a clue of what to expect when the Christ arrived, who is Jesus. He would be ministering in a world where the heart and soul of people were dry ground and resistant to His Good News about the Kingdom of God. His message was very simple, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17

Jesus grew up before God as a tender plant because He was born of His Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was a meek and gentle man of peace, filled with love, kindness, and goodwill. He fostered faith, goodness, and joy with much patience, self-control, and perseverance. His grace, mercy, and message of forgiveness was for the whosoever, with no fine print nor was it necessary to read between the lines. His message is simple, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24 That Tender Plant sprouted up in a world where dry and hardened hearts were resistant to Him.

“He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isaiah 53:2b.

Having no “form or comeliness” or “beauty” refers to not being attractive nor pleasant in a way that would make Him desirable. When all of the Jewish world saw Him, there was nothing at all that they saw in Him that would stir up positive images of the Christ they were expecting to come. Our Lord Jesus lacked any outward appearance of greatness, not clothed in royal apparel, no prestigious social status, nothing like that at all.

We have to realize that there are no physical descriptions of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Nowhere! It would have been impossible for the Jewish people to have recognized Him by any physical appearances that would have defined Him as being handsome or ugly. The fulfillment of prophecy about the character of Christ couldn’t be affirmed by physical appearances but could be affirmed by how undesirable the way of Jesus Christ is. There is no beauty nor pleasantness about His way of life that attracts people to Him as the majestic Christ and Son of God. Instead of being attracted to the beauty of His Spirit people are put-off by His humble, common, and destitute way of life.

“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” Isaiah 53:3

Just how undesirable, ugly, and lowly is Christ Jesus in this world? He is despised and rejected by all the world, except we who know the beauty of His Spirit through our born-again experience. By the Spirit of the Lord, Jesus is called the Man of sorrows who is acquainted with grief. He was and is someone whom people did not and do not want to be associated with as they despise Him and give him no dignity nor esteem. People then and now decided His worth to them to be nothing.

Just how undesirable, despised, and rejected was our Lord Jesus Christ that He is considered to be worth nothing? The paragraphs below describe the answer;

Envision Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross, which was the death penalty assigned to criminals of that day, the electric chair of that day. It would have been very ugly to see, and the crucified one was to be despised and rejected. Who today would have given their life to a man sentenced to death in an electric chair who also claimed to be the Christ and Son of God? He was someone who said that we need to come to Him for reconciliation to God and for the forgiveness of sins and unbelief. Everyone hid from Him and didn’t want to be associated with Him. His hands and feet were nailed to the Cross, a crown of very painful thorns pressed upon His head, and a spear ran through His heart. Indeed, “He had no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”

People tried to throw Him off a cliff after He spoke the words described in Luke 4:18-19. They intended to stone Him to death after He rescued a prostitute who was about to be stoned to death. The rich turned away from Him when Jesus told them to follow Him, the Christ, who was homeless, destitute, and with no place to lay His head. Many disciples quit following Him [not the Apostles] when he said He was the Bread of life sent from heaven. His own brothers mocked Him, saying, “‘For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.’ For even His brothers did not believe in Him.” John 7:4-5

He was chased from a city where He had cast out many demons. He was accused of blaspheme. Accused of having a demon. The Jewish leaders plotted to kill Him and Christ Jesus was counted among the transgressors, “And He was numbered with the transgressors.” Luke 22:37, quoted from Isaiah 53:12 Jesus was betrayed and arrested. He was spit on, beat, and savagely whipped. The Jewish leaders and the Jewish culture cried out to Pilate, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”…”we have no king but Caesar”. He was mocked and ridiculed.

There was and is nothing glamourous, beautiful, and desirable about the way of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus says to us, “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:14 Jesus says to us, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 Jesus says to us, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” John 15:20

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12

“It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:34-37

We have to realize that the majority of the multitudes of people that did follow Jesus Christ, they did so for the physical healings and to be physically fed by Him. At that time, they did not know what it really meant to follow Jesus and to carry their cross.

Even the Apostles were learning what it meant to follow Jesus Christ, as quoted, “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.” Mark 10:35-40

It was after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus that people {including the Apostles} began to understand the message of the Cross. That is when the testimony of Jesus began to grow from a tiny mustard seed into a global presence. That growth came after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us by belief in Christ Jesus. How can we know if we have the Holy Spirit? If we do not speak against Jesus and say that He is Lord then we have the Holy Spirit, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3