"The greater the love, the greater the sorrow..."

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.

 Surely He has borne our griefs,

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced for our transgressions;

He was crushed for our iniquities;

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

And by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:3-5

O sacred head, now wounded,

With grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded

With thorns, Thine only crown;

O sacred head, what glory!

What bliss, till now was Thine!

Yet, though despised and gory,

I joy to call Thee mine.

What language shall I borrow,

To thank Thee, dearest Friend,

For this, Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

Oh! make me Thine forever,

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

Outlive my love to Thee.

BERNARD of CLAIRVAUX

His claims were ridiculed, His words of wisdom thrown back on Himself; none were so poor but could afford to despise Him as lower than they, His love was repulsed, surely He drank the bitterest cup of contempt. All His life He walked in the solitude of uncomprehended aims, and at His hour of extremist need appealed in vain for a little solace of companionship, and was deserted by those whom He trusted most. His was a lifelong martyrdom inflicted by men. His was a lifelong solitude which was most utter at the last. And He brought it all on Himself because He would be God’s Servant in being men’s Saviour….

         We shall not rightly estimate the sorrowfulness of Christ’s sorrows, unless we bring to our meditations on them the other thought of His joys. How great these were we can judge, when we remember that He told the disciples that by His joy remaining in them their joy would be full. As much joy then as human nature was capable of from perfect purity, filial obedience, trust, and unbroken communion with God, so much was Jesus’ permanent experience. The golden cup of His pure nature was ever full to the brim with the richest wine of joy. And that constant experience of gladness in the Father and in Himself made more painful the sorrows which He encountered, like a biting wind shrieking round Him, whenever He passed out from fellowship with God in the stillness of His soul into the contemptuous and hostile world. His spirit carrying with it the still atmosphere of the Holy Place, would feel more keenly than any other would have done the jarring tumult of the crowds, and would know a sharper pain when met with greetings in which was no kindness. Jesus was sinless, His sympathy with all sorrow was thereby rendered abnormally keen, and He made others’ griefs His own with an identification born of a sympathy which the most compassionate cannot attain. The greater the love, the greater the sorrow of the loving heart when its love is spurned. The intenser the yearning for companionship, the sharper the pang when it is repulsed. The more one longs to bless, the more one suffers when his blessings are flung off. Jesus was the most sensitive, the most sympathetic, the most loving soul that ever dwelt in flesh. He saw, as none other has ever seen, man’s miseries. He experienced, as none else has ever experienced, man’s ingratitude, and, therefore, though God, even His God, ‘anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows,’ He was ‘a Man of Sorrows,’ and grief was His companion during all His life’s course.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Sermons on Isaiah