Isaiah 53:3 Meaning He Was Despised and Rejected by Men

Dukkha: Suffering Dukkha is the ache running through everything that is put together. To be a man of suffering is to wear in the open what everyone else carries under a good coat, and the coat is what usually earns a person their welcome. Nothing unusual has happened to him; the load is simply out where it can be seen.

Byādhi: Sickness Byādhi sits among the certainties of owning a body, alongside aging and death. Acquaintance with disease is the plain condition of every body in the crowd, since fever calls at the house of the strong and the weak alike. He lives on speaking terms with a guest the rest pretend has not knocked.

Devadūta: The divine messengers Sickness, aging, and death are called divine messengers, each arriving with news. A young prince rode out, saw a sick man by the road, and could never return to his pleasures the same way. The figure no one will look at stands there carrying that same news, and hiding the face is the refusal to take delivery.

Paṭigha: Aversion Paṭigha is the mind's shove away at the moment of contact. Hiding the face is that shove made physical: the eye lands on him, the body recoils, the head turns before a thought has formed. Aversion moves fastest against whatever reminds us what we are.

Māna: Conceit Māna is the habit of measuring, placing oneself above, level with, or beneath another. Withholding respect is a verdict handed down by people busy weighing themselves, and on their scale he came out light. Esteem from that scale is worth little, since the same scale will weigh its owners tomorrow.

Saṃvega: Urgency Saṃvega is the shock at how things stand that turns a person toward the path. Seeing a man of suffering can do one of two things: send the face away, or stop a life in its tracks and begin it again. Everyone here took the first, and the second was on offer for the same price, which is one steady look.