12. Appearance & Attraction
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. (Isaiah 53:2c)
Many uses of the word appearance has to do with a supernatural and divine quality. And I suspect had He manifest a divine appearance, He might have gotten our attention more readily. But Christ does not merely want your attention, He wants your heart.
It was the humility of the Son which allowed Him to “wear” the appearance of man, to become man. So if His appearance was exchanged, what would have gotten our attention?
The word attracted is most often translated as some for of desire. Another translation is precious, which reveals the nature of the One (or the thing) that has captured more than our attention; it (or He) has captured our desire. Do you desire the Lord? Is He precious to you? He desires you:
Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:5)
And you are precious to Him.
To that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:7)
If not His appearance, what then, would have attracted us to Jesus? It would have been His teaching, His miracles, and His manner of life. It all has to do with His heart. That’s what would have drawn us to Him. Even though the miracles were the attention-getters, they were the invitations to get to know Him more deeply, to walk with Him every day, and to abide in Him moment by moment.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)
