Battered and beaten, skin purple and torn,
Beard ripped from its roots and a halo of thorns.
Eyes that are blackened, they’re near swollen shut,
Lips that are bleeding from a sizable cut.
Spit not His own mingled with blood,
Stains of the earth, there’s a trace of fresh mud.
Dried blood mats the hair mixed in with sweat,
That pours from a forehead that’s constantly wet.
Teeth that are missing, lost in the dust,
Does this look like a face of one you can trust?
Agony etched on His countenance mild,
Though joy soon to be, there’s no trace of a smile.
Even ears bear great pain with mocking of men,
For this face feels full brunt of every man’s sin.
Palate is dry, the tongue’s thirst it is huge,
From shoulders up He looks like one big bruise.
The eyes in this head saw the greatest of hate,
Who would have thought this was the King’s fate.
The suffering inflicted upon this fair face,
Was the revealing of God’s greatest of grace.
Quite willing received in submission He gave,
This torture endured for my soul to save.
The Creator of all that is and will be,
Mangled by evil to set all of us free.
Our transgressions were borne on the shoulder of Him,
Now I stand justified, just if I’d never sinned.
Jesus disfigured beyond appearance of man,
We now know this was God’s salvation plan.
And on that great day when He and I meet,
I’ll not look to His face, but I’ll bow at His feet.
Then with apprehension I’ll gaze up above,
And see a face of greatest beauty shining with Love.
Tertius
Just as there were many who were appalled at him,
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
Isaiah 52:14
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
A note about “The Face of Grace”: While hearing testimonies from the men in my Bible study group pertaining to God’s grace in our lives the same story kept coming up again and again. Seems everybody had a brush with death and survived. But if you had come close to dying one hundred times and survived, it will still get you one of these days. All these instances of grace simply put if off till later. The best purpose they will serve is if they point us to the absolute highest grace which is the cross and the blood of Jesus. Nothing else delivers us from Satan’s grip and hell and put us into God’s open hand and guarantees our admittances into heaven. Sometimes when we say Jesus died for our sins its effect on our hearts and minds is more of a cliché than the fact that the Creator of the universe had His earthly body beaten beyond recognition on account of what we had done (not His punishment whatsoever) and by this sublime act of Love made us His children.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
Helen Lemmel