Fifteenth Day of Lent

 Friday, March 5, 2021

Hallelujah!  He is risen!

A Lenten Devotional Guide

By Jan Wise 

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him…. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:2b, 3b NIV

As a mother of teenagers, I was deeply involved with the kids’ program at church. One summer two college-aged interns came to help with the summer activities. As they were introduced, I did a personal evaluation of their potential effectiveness. I knew the good-looking guy would be a great asset. But of the young woman, I thought, “Bleached blonde hair and painted fingernails – I don’t think she’ll bring much spirituality to our kids.”

As I write this 30 years later, with bleached highlights in my own hair and with nails shiny with polish, I’m ashamed of the way I evaluated those fine young leaders by their physical appearances.

Jesus didn’t look like a king and didn’t do things most of the Jewish people – especially the religious leaders – wanted him to do. A Messiah who would be born in a stable, grow up in a carpenter shop and die on a cross didn’t fit their idea of the one God would send to save them. So they rejected him.

How many times do we miss God’s coming to us because we don’t like the way God “packages” his message? A bloody, beaten Son of God, skewered to a cross with cruel spikes, was God’s ultimate expression of love to us. This Easter season let’s look beyond the cruel appearance of the cross and meditate on the heart of the One who so loved the world that he gave his Son to die for us. Only then will we be ready to experience the joy of resurrection morning. 

Father, I know Jesus said, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgement.” Help me to look beyond what outwardly turns me off and into the heart of what you want me to see from your perspective. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Hallelujah! He is Risen!
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2011
compiled by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator
reproduced and edited by Patience Fort