For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had waited the coming of the promised Saviour. Their brightest hopes had rested upon this event. For a thousand years, in song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, His name had been enshrined; and yet when He came, they did not recognize Him as the Messiah for whom they had so long waited. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." John 1:11. To their world-loving hearts the Beloved of heaven was "as a root out of a dry ground." In their eyes He had "no form nor comeliness;" they discerned in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2.

Det jødiske folk havde ventet på den lovede frelsers komme i over tusind år. Deres lyseste forhåbninger var knyttet til denne begivenhed. I tusind år havde hans navn haft den centrale plads i sang og profeti, i templet og i bønnerne i hjemmet. Men da han kom, forstod de ikke, at han var den Messias, som de havde ventet på. "Han kom til sit eget, og hans egne tog ikke imod ham." Joh. 1,11. Kærlighed til verden fyldte deres hjerte i en sådan grad, at de betragtede ham, som hele Himmelen elskede, som "et rodskud af udtørret jord". I deres øjne var uden skønhed og pragt, uden ydre, så de syntes om ham. Es. 53,2.