Undesirable Christ

He grew up like a young plant before us, like a root from dry ground.  He possessed no splendid form for us to see, no desirable appearance.  -Isaiah 53:2

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was like before his three or three and a half year ministry time recorded in the gospels?  What was he like before all the miracles?

Isaiah gives a prophetic word that he, the Messiah, would be ordinary and undesirable.  If you have been waiting to be extraordinary and desirable, in order to serve God, you are mistaken.

God uses ordinary people who grow up in ordinary places.  God raises up people from unlikely places.  God gets a harvest where there is dry ground and no rain.  You were unexpected in the world's eyes, because your birth was from above.

You might think you are not good enough to be used by God.  That's the wrong focus.  No one is good enough.  When you compare yourself to others, who you think are better to serve God; you are way off.  Christ is all.  He does not need the help of our natural abilities and talents.

Your life in Christ springs up out of nothing.  Your life in Christ owes nothing to the ground it comes out of.  The same is true of your fruitfulness and your harvest.  They come from Christ.  He makes a way where there is no way.

Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph and Mary was not a splendid form for us to to see, he had no beauty or majesty about him that would attract our eyes.  When he walked by, he didn't turn heads.

You may see your self as not desirable enough to be used by God.  Jesus had no desirable appearance.  That means that his appearance was not desirable.  Have you ever desired something based on it's appearance?  The Bible says that we would not be attracted to Jesus that way.

Isaiah was looking forward to Christ and we look backward and today, we reflect Christ and Christians, to a world in need of Christ.  Maybe is was on his stature, his bone structure, the a asymmetry  of Jesus' face that Isaiah was referring to, but everything about him as a man and his actions; most importantly his act of dying on the cross.

Crucifixion is very ugly.  Crucifixion was an execution that entailed excruciating pain, incomprehensible to us today.  Jesus not only was crucified, so he is the crucified one, the crucified God; but he called his followers to take up their crosses as well.  Since we don't really have common public executions today, it is hard to get our minds around how offensive and ugly that this was.  Jesus was a very undesirable person in his message sometimes.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  If you see with heaven's eyes, you see very differently than the way that carnal eyes of the flesh see.  Looking back on Jesus, we see all the beauty in the humility and sacrifice.  It does not matter what Jesus looked like on the outside, but we now see everything he said and did as beautiful.  The eyes of the world are very different as they look for status, regalia, charisma, and entertainment.

Ninety-nine percent or more of God's servants are obscure.  Most of the one percent or less that are famous or almost famous or a little bit famous, like mega church senior pastors; are not comfortable being famous.  They would prefer obscurity and prefer for only Christ to be famous.

So, don't think that fame, beauty, and success in the worldly sense is what you need.  We need more Christ.  We need to abide in him, so that his fruit will be made manifest in our lives.  We need to fast from the world and wholly give ourselves to Christ.  Watch your appetites change and with it, your values, and then your vision, including how you see your self, when you have been gazing upon him.

He does the extraordinary out of the ordinary.  Stay where you are and let him bear his fruit.