A Blue Christmas is one for those who have been suffering with grief or loss. The reading made mention of Isaiah's prophecy of the Saviour who was to be called, Wonderfull Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace, Isa 9:6. The writer of the reading for the above date's devotion, thought that Isa 53, 3-5, should also be included since it mentions that God is a man of sorrow and aquainted with grief.
The passage that was used for the topic was Isa 53, 1-6.
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? The question is asked of who has believd our message, but what message? The message there is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that said that He came, died and rose on the third day. It also speaks about the arm of the LORD - arm there refers to the power of God. So, it can now be read as, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the power of the LORD been revealed? ".
He goes on in verse 2, to give more clues about this person. It says "2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.". It speaks about Jesus growing up before David's father, Jesse and having humble roots as He was born in a manger. In the second part of verse 2, it says "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him", does this mean that Jesus was not attractive? The first thing that comes to mind is the scripture that says that we were all made in the image of God. What is the image of God? The image of God is the characteristics of God, which would include love, kindness, forgiveness, caring, peace, etc. All men were created with these characteristics. On the contrary, verse 2 speaks about how Jesus was brought up or how he came into the world. The Jews thought that as a King or the Messiah, He should have been born in a more royal place with pomp but instead, His coming into the world was lowly. Therefore, Jesus' coming into the world was nothing that would draw people to the prophesied "King".
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. - This further elaborates on verse 2, about Jesus' appearance to men. Jesus was rejected by his own, "he came unto his own and His own received Him not". Jesus's suffering had left scars all over His body from carrying the cross, 82miles to the flogging, Him being spat on, the torture on the cross. So, He knew suffering physically and emotionally.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted. - All the suffering that Jesus went through was for me and you, so that we would be free from sin, but Him suffering was seen by others as Him having sin. Jesus has no sin. He is the example that we should follow. I know that we are all humans but, all things are possible with God. We can live sinless lives. Will we?
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. - A further elaboration on verse 4 as it seeks to mention that it was because of our sin that He went through what He did. Today, the price of sin has been paid already by the blood of Jesus. We are saved. Hallelujah! We live each day by grace. Simply put, grace is favour received for doing nothing.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. - This is interesting. God looked in the future and made preparation for ALL the sin that we could ever commit. What was that preparation? The precious lamb, God's only begotten son. We have gone astray, we will go astray and for all the possibilites of us going astray, it has been paid for already by Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. This does not by no means give us the right to willing sin, presumptious sinning. Sin is a sin and has consequences. Let us all try to live rigtheous.
Amen.
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