“The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.”
Isaiah 53:2-6 MSG
My prayer
From one disfigured person to another:
Jesus, sometimes it’s hard to believe you really did that. But you did, didn’t you? You got beaten and flogged for us, ripped apart for our sakes. You were bruised and crushed beyond recognition, beyond disfigurement. What’s more, you did it willingly!
Jesus, I too am disfigured, mutated by pain and disease and genetics. Sometimes, in my suffering, I feel alone, passed over, even abandoned. I forget that you also experienced loneliness and abandonment. You suffered and knew pain firsthand. Forgive me for forgetting; today, I remember.
Jesus, help me in my extraordinary weakness to look to you, even in great pain and suffering. Help me wait for the wholeness and healing you promise, made possible by your willingness to become disfigured just like us; in so doing, you have joined all of humanity in our pain.