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Powerful Contradictions

When life’s ironies hurt, when our expectations are cruelly crushed, and those we most trust deal us the deepest pain, would you remember this about the Lord Jesus Christ?

In His life He was exposed to greater contradictions than any that ever lived. Life gave Him more disappointments and more cruel ironies than any mortal could have ever born. So much was the Savior’s life a study in irony that Isaiah devoted an entire chapter to it. It is the 53rd.

When life’s ironies hurt, when our expectations are cruelly crushed, and those we most trust deal us the deepest pain, would you remember this about the Lord Jesus Christ?

Isaiah said, “… he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2)

Wouldn’t you expect that the Son of God would have looked like a God? [It was] not so. Jesus appeared a normal man. No man ever born was given a greater genetic endowment who appeared more ordinary.

“He is despised,” Isaiah continued, “and rejected of men; …” (Isaiah 53:3)

Family, friends and neighbors, those who should have loved the Savior, were those who turned the coldest hearts to Him. Oh, how this must have hurt! No man was ever born who more deserved to be welcomed and revered who was more universally hated and ill-treated.

“… a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: …” (Isaiah 53:3) Remember those words?

Righteousness, my friends, is not a guarantee of peace and happiness. The truth is, the better we do, the more trial mortality will give us. After all, He who had the greatest power by perfection to live happily experienced the deepest anguish.

“… he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) Those were Isaiah’s words.

While Jesus carried mankind to the safety of God’s arms, He was reviled by those He saved, and considered as cursed by the very God He served. While they carried Him to the cross, He carried us. As the cross bore Him unto death, He bore us unto life. Never were more thanks deserved when less was given.

“… he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

There never lived a man less deserving of punishment who was more punished than He. His hurt, my friend, was your healing. That’s an irony.

“… the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Jesus who knew no sin became for a moment in time the worst of all sinners. There never lived a man more blamed who lived more blameless.

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, …” (Isaiah 53:7)

Whatever else, Jesus was the freest man who ever lived. His choices never once infringed His agency. Yet He surrendered that liberty and became a prisoner for us. No man more free ever was more oppressed than He.

“… he opened not his mouth: …” (Isaiah 53:7)

He never defended Himself. Never through all of history could so much have been spoken in a condemned man’s defense when so little was.

“… he was cut off,” Isaiah said, “out of the land of the living: …” (Isaiah 53:8)

Has there ever lived a man through all the ages with a greater power to live, and live nobly, who died more painfully and shamefully than Jesus did?

“… he made his grave with the wicked, …” (Isaiah 53:9)
Consider that! The almighty king of Heaven and earth came to earth and was sold as a slave, died as a criminal, and buried as the most abject of commoners – the cruelty of that!

“… it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; …” (Isaiah 53:10)

Just think about that! God who is love and the kindest of all took His most beloved and favored Son, and gave Him the cruelest burden any man ever bore. That is an irony.

My friends, here’s the point: Just as Jesus was not what they expected in the Savior, so too are we sometimes shocked when following Him leads us where we least expect, to pain we don’t deserve, and through disappointments we can scarcely bare.

It would be well for you, beloved saint, to sear this sentence into your soul and live by it: I believe in Christ, so come what may.

I testify as you love the Lord, it probably will.

But remember this: He who descended below all things rose above all things – as will you!