Almost 300 years ago, a French woman by the name of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve wrote a story by the title of La Belle et la Bête – or as we know it today, Beauty and the Beast. If you remember either the original story or the popular Disney animated movie, it is the tale of a beautiful young woman who is forced to live in the castle of a beast whose appearance is too ugly and horrifying and even repulsive for people to see. Later the young girl discovers that appearances truly can be deceiving, for a handsome young prince is trapped inside the body of the beast. In true fairy tale fashion, her love saves the life of the beast – he is restored to his former self and his former appearance – and they live happily ever after.
Obviously, Beauty and the Beast is just a story – it has no basis in fact. But let’s face it: all of us have seen people whom we have regarded as ugly. Sometimes we’re repulsed by what we see. And unfortunately, the type of person we regard as ugly may say a lot about ourselves. Often we dislike people who remind us of our own faults. If I am irritated by a man who has a thick head of hair, perhaps it’s because he reminds me of how much hair I have lost. If an unkempt person repulses us, perhaps it is because we are obsessive about our own cleanliness and care too much about our image. If we try to ignore the disfigured, it may be because they remind us that accidents are unpredictable, and we too may one day suffer terrible burns or scars. Not too long ago the television newscasts showed video of the woman whose face was destroyed last year when she was attacked by a chimpanzee. I couldn’t watch it. As badly as I feel for that poor woman, it was just too awful to watch. I turned to a different channel.
If we are honest with ourselves when we look into the mirror, we must admit that we all have our faults. None of us is wholly attractive. Even movie stars have their good sides and their bad sides, and many of the stars the public admires are obsessed with their imperfections (which they know all too well). How often do you see an aging movie star and realize that you can hardly recognize him or her because so much plastic surgery has been done?
The root cause of the problem, of course, is our sin. The original sin we each inherited from Adam and Eve, our first parents, inevitably leads to a decline in our appearance as we age. But far more important than our external appearance is our spiritual condition: by nature each of us, without Christ, is ugly to God because of our sin. God’s Law, like a mirror, shows us our faults. Were it not for Jesus, God would abhor us and banish us from His presence forever.
Appearances can be deceiving. If anyone in the history of the world should have been incredibly handsome, we would expect that it would be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the man who is God incarnate – sinless and perfect in every way. Yet what does our text prophesy about Him?
As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
As we discussed on Transfiguration Sunday, we may imagine that our Lord was impressive, dignified, and majestic—a perfect physical specimen. That’s how Jesus often is depicted in paintings, pictures and movies. Whatever His appearance, the Gospels tell us that there were many times in the life of our Lord when Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled: Jesus was spurned and rejected. People turned away from Him, they averted their eyes from Him, they closed their ears to His preaching. On Palm Sunday the crowds cheered His triumphant entry into Jerusalem – but five days later more crowds jeered as Jesus was led outside the walls of Jerusalem to the place of His crucifixion, known as Golgotha, the place of the skull.
Throughout Lent, we are mindful of the events that will take place during Holy Week. Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant’s appearance finds literal fulfillment in the physical violence Jesus suffered during His passion. He was beaten, scourged, crucified—an abhorrent sight in the ancient world, and it would be no less so today should we visibly see it. He was ugly to the eye: His hands and feet pierced by iron nails,
His thorn-encircled brow, a jagged gash in His side from a soldier’s spear. Who would want to look at such a sight? If you saw The Passion of the Christ when that movie was released a few years ago, you know exactly what I’m talking about – you know how hard it was to watch the screen to see Jesus’ passion and death so graphically depicted.
As Isaiah foretold, many would have been appalled at Him, for His appearance was disfigured beyond that of a normal man, and His form was marred beyond human likeness. The Jesus who suffered and died on the cross had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
Yet when we think about why Jesus became so ugly, our view of Him changes. The ugliness of our sins was placed on Him. His wounds, His scars were inflicted by our wrongdoing. He was disfigured because He took our trespasses upon Himself. Jesus suffered the scorn and derision we may feel toward others and that others may direct at us. But most of all, Jesus suffered the Father’s abhorrence at the sin of all humanity—the sin Jesus bore in humanity’s place and thereby removed from us.
For that reason, we acclaim Jesus as our “beautiful Savior.” His appearance is majestic beyond compare, for His ugly wounds have earned for us eternal life. The Servant who was despised and rejected will receive any and all who come to Him in faith. No one is too ugly for Jesus to love. As Jesus is recorded saying in John chapter 6, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
God sees through appearances. When God looks at you, He sees you as His beloved, baptized child. He sees you robed in Christ’s righteousness. He sees you adorned with the beauty and the splendor of your Savior’s holiness.
That is how we, too, should regard each other. Yes, appearances can be deceiving. Because just like you and me, the person who is unattractive, who is disfigured, who is handicapped, who is disadvantaged – the person we may want to turn our face away from – has been redeemed by Jesus Christ. As the prophet Isaiah also writes: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
Note: This sermon was freely adapted from a sermon series entitled “Our Suffering Servant” (Christopher W. Mitchell, published by Concordia Publishing House).
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