Isaiah 53:3

I have a tattoo. Several, in fact. I have one on my arm which is a Bible verse. Quite frequently, I am asked what it says. The reaction goes one of two ways every single time. Either the inquirer says nothing further and I am left in an awkward pause or the inquirer asks another question. The latter would ask, "Why that one?" I'm used to the interrogation now. I am used to giving the same boring answer that has robbed me of the joy of having a beloved Scripture with me at all times. No more. I am passionate about the wonderful comfort I receive in it and I will not hide it behind idle chatter. 

Isaiah 53:3 

"He was despised and forsaken of men, 

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."

Now if you have ventured to read this far, you are probably asking the second question yourself. Why get such a depressing verse tattooed? If you are against tattoos, that's a completely different conversation. But if you ask that question, search your heart. Why do we shy away from the truth about who Jesus is?

I love the real Jesus. Not the one certain people like to make up. You know, the one who wants you to be rich and happy and never talks about things that would be improper at the dinner table? No, I love the real Jesus. The one who humbled Himself to our limited, earthly, dirty and ugly existence so that we might know Him. The one who was poor, homeless, and hungry so that we would know His healing. The one who befriended prostitutes and tax collectors so that we might know His redeeming love. The one who was rejected by His own people, was run out of town, very often fled from being killed, was beaten and nailed to a cross to die just so that we might know salvation and forgiveness. I love that Jesus. 

I take comfort from Him in knowing that He has felt the rejection I feel. He knows loneliness as I do. He knows how it feels to have friends turn their backs on you. In truth, He warned us of that very thing. That's what is in Isaiah. He already knew the core of our hearts, but He came anyway so that we might know Him. Don't you see the comfort in that? He already knew the pain we felt, but He came anyway. He came to save us from it by going through it. He lived more than thirty years on this earth going through the same things we go through. Yet even having shown us great love, we turned our backs on Him. I turned my back on Him. Little did I know the Hound of Heaven would be after me, bringing me back and reminding me of the promises so that I might find rest in Him. 

Do you notice that He was "acquainted with grief"? I know myself that when I have shared the gospel with someone and they reject it, I have known grief. I feel the weight and gravity of their decision because they are deciding to go to hell. They are deciding to reject Jesus. I grieve them as if they were dead, because they are. They are destined for the eternal death which will consume them and I have shed many a tear for the lost people in my life. 

Imagine being Jesus and standing in front of so many lost people. Chosen people. Lost. Here He is, King Jesus, the one and only Messiah, and still, people rejected Him. 

Matthew 9:36-38 "Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” "

He felt compassion on us. He could have been angry at the rejection. He could have been hurt, but both Matthew and Luke describe Him as being filled with compassion. I'm sure, because of the many accounts there are throughout the gospels, that we are the reason He was a "man of sorrows". We despised the very thing that could set us free! 

People have not changed much. Our hearts are still corrupted with sin and selfishness. Our pride is so thick in the air it can be cut with a knife. People still hate Jesus. People hate Christians because of Jesus. People hate. God loves them anyway. He came so that He could be hated in order for you and I to know love. 

I don't know about you, but when the eternal, everlasting, infinite, all powerful, amazing, loving God comes and does all that He did for someone like me, totally and wholly undeserving, I will love Him forever. I will do anything for Him. God says not only are you worth dying for, you are worth living a life of sorrow and rejection for. 

That is why I have this tattoo. To remind me that even though I'm not deserving, my gracious King saved me anyway. And on top of that, as if it weren't enough, He knows my sorrows not just because He knows all, but because He lived them Himself. I thank God for love like His.