Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
A powerful passage of Scripture, one that forces us to think about the humanity of our Savior. Jesus was despised, the Word of God emphasizes this by mentioning the word twice for us, Jesus was regarded as utterly useless, worthless of no value, a “waste of space” by his contemporaries. Yes of course that does not mean by every single human being, but it does mean by every single human being unregenerated by the grace of God!
Jesus was rejected as worthless, what a statement, even in my occasional visiting of criminals in prison, I can still see some worth in the men, especially as they talk about their families, their fears, and their faith. Getting close to people teaches us a lot about them, I can however, with some difficulty, I can imagine considering someone as worthless, if for instance they had committed mass murder or some other gross indecency. Yet the Bible still tells us that we are not worthless, unworthy yes, but not worthless, Jesus died for us, we cannot have been worthless to him, for him to make such a sacrifice. Jesus was regarded as worthless, he was of infinite worth, infinite glory, infinite perfection, he was regarded as worthless by the very people he came to die for!