When the Father brought the Son into the world, it was written of Him, "...He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him..." (Isaiah 53:2). He was not "head and shoulders above other men" in stature, as was the first king of Israel, nor had he "beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance," as we read David had. Instead, we are flatly told that He had no appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

How wrong this seems when we think of it from the human perspective! Our natural inclinations rebel against the idea. Ought not the One who was the prototype of all mankind and the Head of the human race to possess all the best refinements of the human form? More than this, the One who is called the "Express Image" of God, should he not convey in his appearance superhuman majesty? But no, the Word of God specifically records that He had no such outward form or majesty that would make him desirable, nothing outward to draw men to him. When the Son of God walked the earth He did not look more impressive than other carpenters from Galilee. No regal bearing betrayed the fact that He was the everlasting King, no pious visage suggested that He would be our great High Priest, and no ethereal glow hinted that He is eternally the Son of God. To all appearances, he was ordinary.

This is difficult to accept, but it is not the full story. Not only would He come into the world without outward signs of distinction, but by the time He had completed His mission, such attractiveness as we might expect of any human being would be gone. His features would be "marred more than any man's". Beaten by the stony fists of soldiers, ripped as they pulled out His beard, gouged by cruel thorns and anointed with the spittle of mockers, that face would suffer more indignity than any ever has, or ever will. Where is the stately form that we should be drawn to Him?

Artists and illustrators have made great efforts to reverse this. They represent Him as attractive, with a mild and smooth visage, soft eyes, well-proportioned features and a tall frame. In depictions of the carpenter shop or the cleansing of the Temple we often see him as ruddy and muscular, an imposing physical specimen. When we see Him tending sheep or standing at the door to knock we picture Him as handsome, with an inviting tenderness. Even in depictions of the crucifixion we imagine him as suffused with heroic detachment, miraculously delivered from the physical indignities of the beating He had endured. It is as though we cannot quite bring ourselves to believe that the Father would send His Son into the world without giving Him an attractive form. We find no warrant for this in Scripture. When God sent His Son into the world, it was without the kind of physical charms we value; when He died, it was with the most horrible disfigurement that mankind will ever know.

What a challenge to our values! We live in a society that gives its highest adulation and renders it's greatest tribute to the possessors of a narrow kind of physical attractiveness. We pay the possessors of beauty fabulous sums. We stare jealously at their pictures in the media. We pour our resources into acquiring possessions, clothes and medical treatments that might enable us to look like them. We starve ourselves that we might resemble them, and when our hopes are finally frustrated we sacrifice our children to the same awful standards. We all sense the emptiness of this, but we all fall prey to the tendency to get caught up with external things. "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart."

Even in our superficial age, we are cannot escape the fact that in the final analysis it is substance, not form which gives value. When we find a person who exhibits unusual depth of character - perhaps great loyalty, kindness or generosity - then we begrudgingly admit that he's a person of worth. We confess that regardless of appearances, there is something to this person which makes him deserving of respect and admiration. We are won over not by his good looks, but by some quality of inner integrity which puts to shame any judgment based on externals. We are confessing that we have found in this person a value which makes us look beyond. We call such a one "a man of substance."

Our Lord was, par excellence, a Man of substance. Truly He had come in the most unassuming form: His glory was veiled, His rightful privileges were set aside, and His manner was meek and lowly. But nothing shallow or superficial characterized Him at all. His friends would love Him for His goodness and wisdom, and His enemies would fear Him for the power and holiness of His character, but no one would be drawn to him by mere appearances. The moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ was the means by which people would come to Him. There would be no physical attraction, but the beauty of His Person would be unmistakable. And to the Father, that was what really mattered.

The Lord Jesus did not rely on pleasing externals to win men to His cause. In fact, He deliberately confronted all who approached him out of superficial motives. True, He had come to seek and to save the lost: but there were terms under which He would not accept their surrender. They must come to Him because the beauties of His Person made it impossible for them not to come, not because His surface attractiveness made it easy to come.

Those who would follow Him must also be men and women of substance. They must always prefer what is to those things that men would like to be. They must pursue truth, and disdain illusions. In practice, their love must be real, and from the heart. Their service must be genuine and unassuming. Their faith must be unfeigned. Their commitment to holiness must be consistent. Their witness must be one of character, not just of words. Their devotion to God must go to the core of their being. In being like this, they give honour to the one who "had no appearance that we should be attracted to Him," yet who is truly "altogether lovely."

"His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." - 2 Peter 1:3

---