Unimpressive Isaiah 53:1-3 Jesus Is the Reason for the Season. Don't Take Christ out of Christmas. Wise Men Still Seek Him. Ch

December 22 – 4th Sunday of Advent You Won’t Believe Who’s Coming

Unimpressive Isaiah 53:1-3

Jesus is the reason for the season. Don’t take Christ out of Christmas. Wise men still seek him. Christmas isn’t just a holiday; it’s a Holy Day. These and other phrases like them abound ... and with good reason. Even though Christmas programs are well attended and Churches experience likely the largest attendance of the year at Christmas, our culture largely has lost sight of what Christmas is really all about. I think I know why. In fact, Isaiah prophesied this over

2700 years ago (Read Text).

“Who has believed our message?” Isaiah’s been sharing about the restoration of Israel as a nation while at the same time prophesying about the coming Messiah who will restore human-kind to relationship with God. It appears that nobody is listening. We have a message of the wonderful gift of Jesus, God’s Son. It is a gift of salvation, restoration, and love. And it appears nobody is listening now either. Even though we who have accepted the gift of love and salvation know what an awesome thing we have been given, most people don’t find Jesus very impressive. Truth be told, there isn’t much about Jesus that’s very impressive, at least at first glance.

Begin that it’s Christmas let’s begin looking at his beginnings. Jesus was born in

Bethlehem. Micah tells us, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are too little to be among the family groups of Judah. But from you one will come who will rule for Me in Israel. His coming was planned long ago, from the beginning” (Mic.5:2). Jesus was not born in Jerusalem. He was born in a meager little village whose only claim to fame was that it was the birthplace of King David.

Otherwise it held no significance to most people.

Jesus’ was born in a place animals slept. Today there are fancy birthing-rooms at hospitals with every amenity needed to give birth. Jesus was born in a stable, maybe a barn-like structure but likely a cave. One thing is for sure, it wasn’t an area where humans would be 1

December 22 – 4th Sunday of Advent You Won’t Believe Who’s Coming expected to sleep. You would never put an honored guest in that area. It was a lowly, humbling place to put Mary and Joseph, and certainly not where you would want to birth a child.

Jesus’ first crib was a manger, a feeding trough. When my grandfather, who was living in the Netherlands, heard he was going to have his very first grandchild and that if that child were a boy would be named after him, he used his talents to build a crib that could be taken apart and stored flat (for shipping) and sent it to my parents. I still have that crib. Jesus’ first crib was a manger, a feeding trough – not impressive.

The announcement of Jesus’ birth first went to a bunch of shepherds, social and religious misfits. God didn’t choose King Herod or even the mayor of Bethlehem to announce

Jesus’ birth. Nope. Smelly, dirty shepherds were the chosen ones to receive and then make the announcement: Outcasts and misfits, unimpressive people. And if it weren’t for the amazing announcement, nobody would have known or cared; after all, it was just a baby.

Jesus’ childhood wasn’t anything to write about, literally. All we have are two very brief references from the Gospel of Luke. He tells us, “The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him” (Lk.2:40). Then, when Jesus was twelve, we’re told He stayed behind in Jerusalem for three days following the feast of the Passover conversing with the priests and scribes at the temple. “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Lk.2:47). Other than that we have to assume Jesus grew up in much the same way as any Jewish boy during that era. He would have been assigned chores to do around the house. When He was older, Jesus would have helped His father in his carpentry trade.

All we know about Jesus’ appearance is what Isaiah tells us, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Is.53:2). A few years ago the world was shown the “Shroud of Turin.” It had the image of a man who had

December 22 – 4th Sunday of Advent You Won’t Believe Who’s Coming been crucified. Many were wondering if that might have been Jesus. There is no way of knowing. I saw a show on the History Channel not long ago that used various things with modern day technology to give a “real” image of important people of the past. One person was from the image on the Shroud. If that was Jesus, not only was he unimpressive, he was downright ugly, by current day standards.

So, Jesus’ birth was unimpressive, his childhood was unimpressive, and his appearance was unimpressive. Jesus was plain, ordinary, and maybe even a little odd. Isaiah’s prophesy went deeper than that: “He was despised and rejected by mankind … he was despised, and we held him in low esteem” (Is.53:3). By most, Jesus was an outsider.

Have you felt like an outsider? Perhaps at school where someone is bullying you? Or as a teenager when all the other kids were cool and you were not (that was me)? Maybe at work where one person seems to be the bosses favorite and gets promoted for no real reason, and however hard you work you seem overlooked? Or perhaps normally you feel absolutely fine, but in certain social situations you feel not quite included - uncomfortable and on the edge - trying too hard to fit in. Have you ever felt on the edge, your heart restless because you don’t fit in?

Into this world full of those despised and rejected, God makes himself born as the one despised and rejected.

So why did Jesus do it? So Jesus could say to us, “I know how you feel”. I know what it feels like to grow up rejected. I know what it feels like to be full of sorrow. I know what it feels like to be familiar with suffering. I know what it feels like to be despised and rejected. Jesus is not completely different from us as we might once have thought; rather he is more like us than we will ever know.

Why did Jesus do it? So Jesus could demonstrate his love for us. Jesus says to every person here today “Even though you once rejected me I love you. Even though you hide from me

December 22 – 4th Sunday of Advent You Won’t Believe Who’s Coming and despise me I still love you. I’m still willing to leave heaven, give up my beauty, give up my majesty, and give up the worship of millions and millions of angels, because I love you that much.”

Why did Jesus do it? So we can see how sinful we really are. Some of our greatest sins are the ones we do to Jesus. Isaiah lists some of the sins we do to Jesus: When we are longer attracted to Jesus; when we don’t desire him; when we despise and reject him; when we cause him sorrow; when we hide from him; when we don’t esteem him.

Why did Jesus do it? So Jesus could die for our sins and reconcile us back to God.

Into this world full of those despised and rejected God makes himself born as the one despised and rejected. Yet, the one born despised and rejected was given the name Jesus, God rescues and the title Immanuel, God with us.

Paul says it this way: Jesus “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil.2:6-8).

So in all the unimpressive, God shows us His loving nature. God loves us so much he would empty himself of all His glory, humble Himself to a degree that is hard to fathom so forgiveness hope, light, love and inclusion can become the order of the day. Through his birth we, the outsiders, are offered the chance to become an insider. “To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn.1:12).

Jesus came unimpressive so that we can receive salvation and become the children of

God. Jesus is the reason for the season. Christmas is a Holy Day. Receive the best, though unimpressive, gift there is. Receive Jesus, God’s love gift for you.