Body Image

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 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. Isaiah 53 A beautiful woman, an idol of her time, the perfect image of the time and place's most cherished ideal of woman, was asked: "What would you change about yourself?" Instantly, she replied, "My nose." "Why?" asked the questioner. "It's too long." she said as if it were perfectly obvious. It wasn't as far as millions of people were concerned, but for her, this tiny unnoticed imperfection ruled her sense of self. Jesus is usually portrayed as the perfect image of a man for the time and culture of the artist, but one artist depicted Him as a hunchback, scandalous to most of us. But notice what Isaiah says: "despised and rejected." This is before the section of that most glorious and horrific of chapters in which He bears our sins and carries our sorrows. Is it possible that He was deformed in some way? Probably not. Yet, He had nothing of physical attribute to attract either. Then, finally, He became sin for us. Isaiah, in the verses preceding the chapter on the Suffering Servant: His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men. (52:14) For those of us who have some physical imperfection, it is common to have people stare at the oddity. I think of the "elephant man" whose face was so disfigured that women fainted and children ran away screaming. He became a wonderful Christian and his story is a testimony to transforming grace. But back to Jesus. If for some reason He was not that perfect specimen; if nothing else but that He was ordinary looking with no physical defects, this is a tremendous lift to me. Not only did He take my sins, wondrous as that is, but He also lived in my shoes. He felt the sting of the local bully's teasing; he felt the critical stares of other mothers as they compared Him to their perfections; He knew the agony of the rejection of oddity. He walked in my shoes. The rejection which is part of my life is borne by Him who experienced the same. I take comfort in the fact that He knows the bite of rejection, the feel of scorn, the lash of rejection. And I, knowing the same, can know His sorrows and sense His pain. We share in one another's sufferings. What a wonder! My pain resolves into a shared joy of comrades in misery, but that company buoys each the other.   6 3 09