I used to think the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah indicated that the Messiah was or would not be a physically attractive person. Looking at it this morning seemed to take that conviction even further: "one from whom people hid their faces", people looking away as if he was more than plain but even ugly. His beauty was a moral beauty shining from within, the kind that had to grow on you gradually. (This brought Abe Lincoln to mind because he used to joke about his own ugliness. When an opponent in a debate was accusing him repeatedly of supposed 2-facedness Lincoln replied that one face like his own was more than enough!) Yeah Messiah was a real knockout head turner you might say, but turning heads the other way, especially when disfigured upon the cross. He bore our iniquity. Ironically the Hebrew word for iniquity is "avon" which in our culture is all about cosmetics and the hiding of flaws so as to present a better physical appearance than would otherwise be.

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