Isaiah 6:2, ‘Each [Seraph] had six wings; with two *he covered his face*…’
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 heir faces*…’
In the depths of His agonies, Jesus Christ became as one from whom men hid their faces in shame and pity and horror…Like a severely handicapped person whose suffering drives us to avert our gaze; like someone shattered by grief whose sorrow strips us of confidence and leaves us uncertain of where to put our eyes; like a person in the last stages of life whose body is so degraded and humiliated by disease that we do not know what our role is in their presence…like these—and more than these—so our Lord and God Himself became as He bore the sorrows and griefs, the diseases and sufferings, the sin and shame of the world…He became as one from whom we would hide our faces…
And yet, wonder of wonders, this lowliness, this shame, this suffering that drove human beings to hide their faces from the suffering Jesus *is* the revelation within time and space of the loftiness, the glory, the holy majesty that drove the burning seraphim to hide their faces before the throne of YHWH God. To the eyes of resurrection-illumined faith—the very cross upon which hangs the suffering servant before whom men hide their faces in shame *is* the throne upon which sits the Lord and God before whom seraphim hide their faces in awe; indeed, this suffering *is* that glory and this servant *is* that Lord.
But how can this be? Why is the glory of the Lord on His throne manifest within time and space in the agony of the servant on the cross? One answer must be that the glory of the Lord is, supremely, Love. Thus, when this Love is turned upon those who deserve damnation, it bears damnation in place of the damned Beloved, and so necessarily reveals itself to the Beloved as damnation borne in Love…
The glory that turns seraph faces away in wonder manifests within this world as suffering that turns human faces away in shame…but, any and all who will turn their faces toward this one will see in His face the knowledge of the glory of God, and so will truly live.
