“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.” Isaiah 53:3
Throughout Scripture, Jesus is described with various titles and analogies. He is the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah, the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel. Of all the wonderful depictions of Jesus, this raw, prophetic description in Isaiah often offers me the greatest comfort.
He is “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” I know that God created the world, and that He is powerful. I know that God sent His Son and is loving and merciful. But when I’m facing loss, pain and grief that shreds me to the core, what I most want to know is that God understands—that He is acquainted with the pain I’m feeling. When a ministry I had poured my life into for ten years had to close, my family had compassion, but no one could fully comprehend what the loss of that work meant to me, and I felt very lonely in my grief. In my tearful prayer times, I cried out to God, “No one understands how badly this hurts.”
From the other side, I’ve faced the challenge of trying to offer empathy to a friend experiencing a struggle I’ve never faced: a house burned down, a child gravely ill or a husband’s betrayal. Good friends listen, care and give the precious gift of support to each other as best we can, yet none of us can fully know what another person is going through. Only Jesus is fully acquainted with every bit of our experience. He is the powerful answer to our longing to be understood.
Faith step: Have you ever been disappointed when people haven’t met your need to be understood? Bring all the details of your past or current heartache to the One who knows you intimately, understands you fully and loves you completely.
