Just how beautiful Jesus is.
A call to worship.
Themes
The beauty of Christ • The bride of Christ • The cross • The loveliness of Christ • The character of Christ • The Lord of glory • The Son of Man
It is too easy to strip the cross of all its glory — to not really see any glory there at all, to think of it as simply a transaction for our sin, somehow apart from the real beauty of Christ.
Scripture reading
Isaiah 52:13–14 Isaiah 53:4–5 John 10:17 John 12:23 John 12:32
This call to worship1 comes from a prophecy about Jesus, written by Isaiah. And also from three statements that Jesus made about Himself when He was here.
First, Isaiah prophesied: See, my servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Many were appalled at Him — His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being, and His form marred beyond human likeness. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But… He was pierced for our transgressions, and He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. And then Jesus spoke these words on two occasions. First He said: The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life. And on a second occasion He said: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.
Prayer
Father in heaven, your Son was eternally the spotless epitome of beauty. And… for His bride, He was lifted up on a cross, and there He became disfigured. His beard was pulled out. His body was pierced and lacerated, bloodied, beaten, and spat upon. The King in His beauty, became gruesome and horrifying to behold. But that was just the point. For surely He had taken up all our pain, and bore all our suffering. On the cross, Father, we shared with Him all that we have; we gave Him all our sin, all our death, and all our shame. And out of boundless love for His bride, our bridegroom took all our sorrows and all our sickness upon Himself — all the sorrows and disease of His bride and all the consequences of her sin — He took them down to death and buried them forever. He took all our ugliness so that we might have His loveliness. In his willingness to die our death and take our suffering upon Himself, He revealed just how passionate was His love. For eternity, Father, You had an unsurpassable pleasure in Your Son, yet Your delight in Him overflowed when He proved His character at the cross. For on that day, so altogether different from His eternal life, He proved most definitively who He is and what He is like. “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life.” Jesus was never more lovely than when He was most deformed for his bride. On the cross, we see our bridegroom loving His bride to death. We see the Lord of glory giving out His life. We see the Lord of hosts crushing Satan. We see the King enthroned. At the cross, we see Jesus. We see the true definition of His name: “the Lord saves” — this is who He is. We confess, Father, that it is too easy to strip the cross of all its glory — to not really see any glory there at all, to think of it as simply a transaction for our sin, somehow apart from the real beauty of Christ. But the crucified one is the Son of Man… glorified. He is the glory of the cross. There at the cross, in almighty kindness, He took our sin and defeated our death so that we might have Him. “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to Myself.” In the name of Jesus, the beautiful one who was made vile, the holy one who became sin, the high and mighty one who was lifted up, but to die, Amen
Inspiring resources
A call to worship creates wonderment, amazement, curiosity, yearning, captivation, provocation, hopefulness, thankfulness, affection, rapture, delight. As these mix together, the response is worship.
If this call to worship leaves you wondering or curious or provoked or hopeful, consider diving into this awesome book by Michael Reeves, who wrote many of the things in this call to worship.
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, February 20, 2022.