Despised
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” Isaiah 53:3
Despised – Until Mel Gibson’s movie brought the crucifixion to the screen in graphic detail, we languished in a culture that viewed the event as an important spiritual symbol but hardly an unspeakable evil. The Passion of the Christ has probably done more to force us to look deeply at the atrocity of this event than ever before. But history is full of atrocities. Chinese Christians are hideously tortured at this very moment. Children are sacrificed, women sexually humiliated, men beaten and burned. The world is a very cruel and pitiless place if you are one of the unprotected ones. Jesus’ death on the cross was not significant because of its remorseless suffering. It is not the cross that is in focus. It is the man on the cross. This is the reason why the gospel accounts spend so little time on the actual torture of this execution. There were hundreds of crucifixions in Jesus’ day. It is not about the kind of death. It is all about who died.
The first thing that Isaiah tells us about Jesus is that he was despised. The Hebrew word is bazah. You can find it in Genesis 25:34, Daniel 11:21, Malachi 1:6 where the word is used to describe men who refuse to give proper respect to God and exhibit disdain or hatred for matters that should have taken priority. In Psalm 51:17, David notes that God does not despise a broken heart. Why does Isaiah say that the coming suffering servant Messiah will be despised? The answer is found in the expectations of his judges. A moment’s reflection on the political climate today will explain Isaiah’s insight. When we feel as though someone who we wanted to lead us has failed to meet our requirements, we can easily move from disappointment to distain. When we believe that this person claims moral superiority, our distain ferments detesting. And when that person continues to exhibit the character of nobility, grace and calm in spite of everything we can hurl at him, our detesting becomes unadulterated hatred.
Why did the leaders of Judaism insist on the cruelest execution they could imagine for this man, Jesus? Because they hated everything he stood for. They hated his inclusion of the downtrodden in God’s love affair with men. They hated his pointed revelation of their own hypocrisy. They hated his ability to heal, to comfort and to show compassion. They hated his obedience to God.
The message of the gospels is not the cruelty of the cross. It is the glorious tragedy of the death of God’s innocent one at the hands of those who hated what God was doing. Being despised is part of the way of Jesus. Do you know the fellowship of His suffering like this?
