07-05-2026 Man of Sorrows

Text: Isaiah 53:3-4

                Once again, we find ourselves at the first Sunday of the month where we will celebrate the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Jesus was given many names both in Old Testament prophesy and in life by the Gospel writers in the New Testament when He walked this earth as a man.  This morning, we are going to look at why Isaiah called Him a Man of Sorrows.  Our text is found in Isaiah 53:3-4 where he wrote:  “ (3) 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.  (4) Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows:  yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” 

                We all know that sorrow is a part of life.  There isn’t one person in this room who doesn’t know sorrow.  And the Son of God, while He took the form of a human and came to our world also experienced sorrow.  So, let’s look a little deeper into what Isaiah was showing us when he called Jesus a man of sorrows.

                There is the sorrow of rejection that we all feel in our lives and unfortunately it will happen many times.  Perhaps there was a job you wanted and didn’t get or someone you really cared about rejected your love or your friendship.  Each time it happens it hurts and it takes a long time to get past the pain it causes.  Jesus also knew the sorrow of rejection.  He came to this world out of love and His love was rejected.  He came to show us the truth about God and His plans for us, but He was rejected.  He came to show us the kingdom God has planned for our eternal home and He was rejected.  He felt the same pain we feel with every rejection we must endure.

                John 1:11 reminds us that the children of Israel whom God chose to prepare the rest of the world for the coming Messiah rejected Him even though they had the entire Old Testament that pointed to His coming.  Mattew 13:57-58 tell us that He was rejected by those in His own home, hometown, and His country. 

                Jesus wasn’t the first prophet to be rejected in His own country.  Jeremiah also was rejected by his hometown and members of his own family.  Jesus only did a few miracles in His hometown because of their lack of faith.  It’s the lack of faith that blinds people to the truth and robs them of hope.  How tragic that these people missed the very Messiah that they were longing for.  When we can’t see God at work around us, maybe we’re struggling with stubbornness and unbelief more than we realize.  We should never assume that we know it all and always ask God to open our eyes to the reality of Jesus so that we can look at Him through the eyes of faith.

                Matthew 27:39-43 show us how Jesus was rejected by the crowd at the Cross.  They mocked him and tormented Him even in death.  Think about how you feel when you experience the sorrow of rejection.  It hurts.  But you know what?  Jesus knows exactly how you feel and because He cares about you, He will help you through it if you let Him.

                Each one of us knows the sorrow of grief.  There’s nothing that can compare to it.  We experience tears and pain because of the loss of something or someone dear to us.  Grief shatters dreams we had for the future.  It happens when homes are broken because of broken relationships.  We grieve when we must watch loved ones suffering from illnesses and when we lose loved ones in death.  Jesus was acquainted with grief.  He didn’t insulate Himself from it.  We see in John 11:30 that he cried at the grave of His friend Lazarus and Luke 19:41-44 tell us He cried for Jerusalem.  Because we have a Lord that will understand what we are feeling, we can bring our deepest grief to Him.  He waits at the throne of grace to help us through it and gives us hope for the future.  Hebrews 4:16 reminds us that through prayer, we can approach Jesus openly and honestly.  We never have to be afraid to approach Him and ask for His help.  We can approach Him boldly and with confidence because He is our friend and counselor who has the power to do all we ask because He owns all the treasures of both Heaven and earth.

                Our text show us that Jesus experienced the sorrow of loneliness.  He was despised and held in low esteem.  We do the same with people that we reject for a variety of reasons.  Or perhaps you have been rejected by others at some point and remember how lonely you felt.  Jesus walked the lonely road for you and for me.  In Luke 22:40-46 we see that He prayed in Gethsemane alone.  When He was arrested, Matthew 26:56 tells us how His Disciples left Him alone.  He stood before the high priest alone as Luke 22:63-71 shows us.  Luke 23 tells us that He was tried before Pilate alone and He was left alone   on the Cross as Matthew 27:46 shows.

                But we’re assured that we will never be alone.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:20 that He is always with us.  And He promised in John 14:18 that the Holy Spirit – the comforter - would be with us to help us as we live a Christian life here on earth.  Hebrews 13:5 reminds us that He will never leave us or forsake us meaning He will never renounce us.

                The phrase ‘rejected of men’ means He was looked down on by people who thought they were better than Him.  The phrase ‘man of sorrows’ refers to Jesus taking all the sorrows of humanity upon Himself and we are assured that He understands our pain and suffering because He felt them too.  The phrase ‘and we hid as it were our faces from Him’ describes the treatment of the servant by people throughout history.  And why do people hide their faces from Him?  Because He isn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted!  Israel wanted freedom from Roman rule, and we today want freedom to follow our own paths.  Finally, the phrase ‘yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted’ tells us that because He died on a cross, Israel assumed that He died under the curse of God because of what Moses said in Deuteronomy 21:23 “For He who was hanged is accursed of God.” 

                The reality is that all the sufferings that Jesus experienced while living as a man were vicarious.  He took it all on Himself so that we could be saved from having to pay the consequences of our sins and escape the punishment that we deserved.  In other words, He did it all for us.  Think about this as you participate in this morning’s communion service and remember that because of what He willingly did, we can be assured of our place in eternity.

                Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.