Rick McNally / September 12, 2025

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Isaiah 53:3 

We are continuing our brief exposition of this verse from Isaiah 53 that describes the Messiah — the servant of God who will not fail as Israel did.  This coming Messiah is not just a hero in the classic sense; he is also described as a person who partakes of the sorrow, the pain, and somehow, even the sin of mankind.

We have spoken already of the Messiah being despised, of him being known as a man of sorrows, one who is acquainted with grief.  Could it get worse?

As one from whom men hide their faces

To hide a face is to turn in shame, to look on someone and consider that viewing this person or this event brings an involuntary response of rejection.  We sometimes don’t want to deal with certain truths, certain events — and we turn our head.   Sometimes it is intentional and meant as a message to others — I’m not looking at you, or looking near you.

I’ve had people turn their heads from me.  It is not a good feeling.  I’m sure all of us have in some way.  Sometimes it is deserved, sometimes it is not.

Messiah would be a person for whom many would turn their heads from.  Not just a couple, but we get the idea from this verse that many would respond this way.  Jesus in the gospels experienced the crowds’ reception and the masses’ fickle rejection.

He was despised

OK, so this word was already used in the beginning of this particular verse of poetry.  In this, it becomes a bit of a Hebrew poetry structure:

• Line One: x then y
• Line Two: y then x

This is called synonymous parallelism and is a very small chiastic structure.  The purpose of this kind of storytelling is found both in the repetition and symbolism; telling the same thing a different way is powerful.  It also makes it more memorable.

Here, we have already been told “despised and rejected” and now we hear that “men turn their face; he was so despised.”  Notice, same idea, different word order, multiplication of feelings, a multiplication of impact.

The sum is greater than the parts.

And we esteemed him not.

This is the saddest line to me.   It doesn’t say “they esteemed him not,” but the full plural inclusive “we.”  The author of the book includes him in the despising rejection of Messiah.

The word esteem in Hebrew has the idea of “thinking” or “reckoning” or even “computed.”  The people would review this potential Messiah, and they would do their math in their head and determine that he was inconsequential.  Thus we can see the different translations rendering of this verse: 

• we didn’t value him / HCSB
• we considered him insignificant / NET
• we held him of little account / NRSV
• we did not care / NLT
• we had no regard for him / NASB
• we held him in low esteem / NIV

This is rejection complete and simple.  The Messiah would come to save his people — the people of the world — and the world would shrug.  

This still goes on today.  We reject Christ.  We say we accept him but we don’t do as he says.  We pick and choose what pieces of the gospel — what pieces of moral Gospel living — we like and what we despise.  We reject him.

Do we love our enemies?  Do we serve each other or desire to rule?  Do we believe that being “poor in spirit” is actually a good thing?  Do we believe we are as sinful as we really, really are?

Isaiah was stark in his assessment of the future of Messiah.  He wouldn’t be just rejected, he would be outright rejected by all.  

In those last few hours of Jesus’ earthly life, he would be rejected completely.  Not only by the scheming betrayal of Judas (that’s not what a kiss is for), but by his greatest human proponent outside of his mother Mary.  Peter would outright deny even knowing him.  He did this thrice.  The other disciples scattered.  John stayed close but not close enough to be noticed, I guess.

His rejection included physical torture and horrendous death.  A death that is eerily described here in Isaiah 53.

Conclusions

This is not a “them” thing but an “us” thing.

I don’t care if you’ve been a believer for 100 years; you too have likely rejected Christ in some way.  If you haven’t, you are a better person than Paul, Peter, and John.  While that is great if you are, I highly doubt that. 

The question is not “if” we will reject him, but “how,” particularly how we have done so.

I have at different times made some weird considerations of the Scriptures.  I’ve looked at Paul’s writing in Scripture as sometimes being “better” than Jesus’ teachings.  This is wrong-headed.   I think Jesus was a miraculous genius.  I believe sometimes his words were (and are) above me.  I also believe that much of what Paul had to write was trying to explain Jesus’ thoughts to ordinary men.  This is why I believe Paul resonated with me.  Jesus was too deep for me.  Not too simple.   Too deep.  This is a bit of a rejection, ever so slight.

Jesus is “too nice” sometimes for me; Jesus is “too harsh” sometimes for me.  I don’t understand him sometimes.  He cannot be simply put into a box and “figured out.”   His earthly family thought he was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21-22, John 7:5), people thought he was demon-possessed (John 7:20, 10:20), the religious leaders of the day were right there with them (John 8:52).  In his hometown, he was rejected (Luke 4).

It was this rejected stone that would become the cornerstone of all of God’s good plans (Psalm 118);

The stone that the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Can you see the marvel behind the pain?  Can you see the beauty in the horror in that rejection?

Receive the Lord, begin the lifelong process of “not rejecting” him.  It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can be done simply.

Call out to him; he will not reject you.