Isaiah 53:3

Isaiah 53:3. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

It was not only Christ’s humiliation, but his sorrow, which became a stumbling-block in the way of the unbelieving Jews. How could they, who were looking for an earthly deliverer to come in regal splendor, believe in a weeping Messiah? How could they delight in him from whom men hid their faces, when they were expecting a mighty leader before whom, all would submit themselves? Ah, friends, there was a time when we did not esteem the Lord, when we despised him! We also cared not for the Man of sorrows; though all his sorrows were borne on our account, we passed him by with utter indifference. O wretched heart! Well might I wish to tear thee from my bosom as I think that ever thou shouldst have been callous to thy Lord, the Well-beloved! It was a death indeed which thou didst call life, when thou didst live without thy Lord: "We hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."