Here’s some INTERESTING advice to parents, ‘People get very upset by the idea that their children might have to suffer. Well, why? […] are you having children? You want them to be Christians, don’t you? If they are going to be Christians, they are going to suffer. That is what life is about’ (Stanley Hauerwas).
I found this ADVICE a little confronting. Doesn’t the world think that LIFE all about maximising PLEASURE and minimising pain?
This morning we come to the most well KNOWN of the servant songs, and probably one of the most well KNOWN parts of the Old Testament. There are at least EIGHTY references to Isaiah in the New Testament and most of them come from Isaiah 53. Hymns and songs abound on the faithful suffering of the SERVANT who laid down his life for the iniquities of us all.
A challenging passage—well known—just read and ADMIRE its beauty. Relax and let the POETRY speak for itself. Immerse ourselves in the faithfulness of the SERVANT in life and in death. And be thankful! Be thankful that the SERVANT should do this for us. ‘He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:5-6).
Let's REMIND ourselves of the bigger picture. Chapters 1 to 39 promises exile because that's how God responds to sin. ‘Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done’ (Isaiah 3:11). The JUSTICE of God. So in the eighth century B.C. the Babylonians came SWEEPING through Judah and Jerusalem and the TEMPLE was destroyed and the cream of SOCIETY were taken into exile. God is good, but he is not safe!
In chapter 40 the language CHANGES from condemnation to comfort. Israel has served her time. And the message of COMFORT is a simple one: God has NOT abandoned Jerusalem. God is faithful to his promises and he will KEEP his promise to reverse the curse of sin. This is no simple promise to rebuild the same old CITY and reinstate the same old PEOPLE doing the same old WORSHIP in the same old TEMPLE! Then the same old PROBLEM would repeat itself!
The prophet ends his book with a VISION of a new Jerusalem, a heavenly Jerusalem PERCHED on God's holy mountain. A place of worship far BEYOND human expectation. A new LAND, a new PEOPLE, a new CITY, a new TEMPLE beyond our wildest dreams. Incredibly the Gentiles will ASCEND the heavenly Mt Zion and they too will worship God. And then Isaiah tells us in chapter 65 that this New Jerusalem is a SYMBOL of the new age, the new creation (Isaiah 65:17-18). The best is yet to come.
The ministry of the suffering servant EXPLAINS how we move from the old creation to the new creation. Out of the BABYLONS of this world, God will save his people. God will find for them a NEW city where he is the Maker and Builder. The heavenly Jerusalem REPLACES the ill-conceived humanistic dream of the TOWER builders of Babel. But SIN must be dealt with, JUSTICE must be done, WORDS must be spoken, MERCY must be poured out, REDEMPTION must be bought, BLOOD must be spilt.
The fourth servant song EMBRACES these themes and brings the earlier songs to a STRONG and powerful climax. For the servant is NOT the traditional action hero. He is not an ‘incredible hulk’ type figure who CRUSHES his enemies with brute force. Instead he OFFERS love and forgiveness in return for hatred and justice. He is COMMITTED to carrying out the will of the Lord. The rejection and suffering of the servant occupies most of the song. But what we must NOTICE is that the song is drenched in glory and victory.
Which is STRANGE given the biographical details. In fact the servant is so unattractive that NO-ONE would ever go to his FACEBOOK page. His photo is ugly beyond belief. Isaiah 52:14 says that the servant’s appearance is disfigured, ‘beyond that of any man’. His form MARRED beyond human likeness.
We learn more about his humanity. Isaiah 53:2, ‘He grew up before the Lord like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground (which is easily blown away). He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not’ (Isaiah 53:2–3).
Absolutely NO hits on this Facebook page. NO tweets on Twitter. The SERVANT: ugly, despised, rejected, unpopular—a man of sorrows. He does NOT belong in this world. A man that no-one would miss. ‘Put him to death—who cares’! When the Teacher in Ecclesiastes EXPLAINS the wisdom of God he looks MISERABLE and boring and unsociable. ‘Whose that man standing over there?’ ‘He’s the Teacher’. ‘Let him be then’. The Teacher has such a DIM view of pleasure and wisdom and old age and MONEY and death. But the Teacher is always right. He brings us in touch with REALITY and this is more than we can bear.
And now we see the WISDOM of God in he flesh—and he brings us in TOUCH with reality and its MORE than the world can bear. ‘Let the servant be, then. Let him suffer and die. No-one will miss him’. A LAMB is a fitting description. A dumb animal that gets LED to the slaughter. No objection, no struggle, no noises. ‘He was oppressed and afflicted (verse 7), yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth’ (Isaiah 53:7).
The picture here is one of TOTAL hopelessness. By human standards, it can’t get any worse. An UNATTRACTIVE, disfigured man. A man MISSED by no-one. Off to the slaughter house and no-one will even know he’s gone. But the Lord will! In verse 4 the servant is STRICKEN by God; then in verse 10, ‘it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer’.
It’s a STARTLING construction. The servant: called and PREDESTINED to bring justice to the earth. The one who will DISPLAY the Lord’s splendour. The Lord PROMISES to uphold him. The SPIRIT of the Lord is upon him. But in life his words are FRUSTRATED and apparently ineffective. So servant cries out, ‘I have laboured to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing’ (Isaiah 49:4). His MINISTRY disfigures him. He is REJECTED by men and he is a man of sorrows. GOD’S RESPONSE is surprising: ‘I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 49:6). GOD’S RESPONSE: crush the servant, allow him to suffer, take him to his death.
The very nations who the servant came to SERVE are the ones who scorn him.
Jesus entered the world as a BABY, not a king. He was born in a STABLE, not a palace. His father was a CARPENTER and his closest friends were FISHERMAN. Church leaders didn't come running to him. He didn't send out invitations to his baptism. He had to ask the great PREACHER of his day to immerse him.
Many heard Jesus preach but they could NOT approve of what they heard because it CAME from such a small figure. He did not CHARM the eye, ATTRACT the common heart, nor RAISE the expectations of all that saw him. It was expected that he should live a PLEASANT life, enjoying all the delights of the sons and daughters of men. But he was a man of sorrows and ACQUAINTED with grief. Matthew Henry says, ‘It was not only his last scene that was tragic, but his whole life was so, not only mean, but miserable’.
The unimpressive Jesus is the WISDOM of God. The Apostle PAUL reflects, ‘Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength’ (1 Cor 2:22–23, 25).
The WISDOM of God is Christ crucified.
The suffering and death of the servant may come as a SURPRISE to you. Couldn’t God just flick a switch and fix the world? Why not spare his Son the agony? Couldn’t the WORD that made the universe just as EASILY make the new universe? Why a servant? Why a suffering servant? Why MUST the servant endure humiliation and rejection and agony?
There was no other way. While in the GARDEN, Jesus fell down on his face and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’ (Matt 26:39). There was NO other way. The obedience of the servant was the only way. The HOLINESS and justness of God demands that sin be PUNISHED by death.
This is sin: ‘For we all, like sheep, have gone astray (verse 6), each of us has turned to his own way’ (Isaiah 53:6). Sin is DECIDING your own way. Sin is LIGHTING your own torch. Sin is saying to yourself, ‘No matter what happens, I’ll do it my way’. Sin is HOSTILITY toward God. Sin is a REFUSAL to acknowledge Jesus as our Creator and Lord. Sin is SELF-CENTREDNESS. Sin is a belief that I am god. Sin is ARROGANCE and self-determination.
The PSALMIST says, ‘The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong’ (Psalm 5:5). Sin devastates relationship with God. And if there is to be a MEETING between God and man, there is SERIOUS preparation to be done. The priests, Temple, the courts, the BLOOD, the words. The elaborate Old Testament sacrificial SYSTEM reminds us that God cannot be approached lightly. Day after day sacrifice was needed to atone for the sins of the people. The writer to the HEBREWS says, ‘Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties: again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins’ (Heb 10:11).
The priest was the BUSIEST man on the block! Sin kept coming and SACRIFICES keep coming if Israel were to live in the presence of a holy God. What if there was ONE, FINAL sacrifice which sent the priests looking for another job?
Verse 4, ‘Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows’;
Verse 5, ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5);
Verse 6, ‘The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’;
Verse 7, ‘for the transgression of my people he was stricken’;
Verse 10, ‘the Lord made his life a guilt-offering’;
Verse 11, ‘by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many’;
Verse 12, ‘For he bore the sins of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors’
Isaiah 53 is ABSOLUTELY foundational for understanding the Lord Jesus. Jesus KNEW the song and he understood his death in the LIGHT of this song. His death was a sin-bearing death. In case you missed it in Isaiah, the Apostle PETER makes it crystal clear, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Pet 2:24).
Karl Barth was one of the most INFLUENTIAL theologians of the twentieth century. He possessed a brilliant mind and wrote thousands of words exploring the links between FAITH, theology and culture. Towards the end of his life Barth gave a lecture and at the END of the lecture he was asked what he considered to be the GREATEST theological discovery of his life. Everyone sat with bated breath READY for an extended and complex answer. Karl PAUSED for a moment, then he smiled and said, ‘The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”’!
Our sin caused such DEVASTATION in the Godhead that God forsook God, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mk 15:34). On the cross, Jesus stills calls God ‘my Father’. The servant DOESN’T hate the Lord. He DOESN’T rebel against his Father—he faithfully prays to his Father, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus knows why—he knows the ANSWER to the question—but now he is facing the REALITY of desertion by God.
The Father whose eyes were too PURE look at sin, turned his eyes AWAY from his Son for the first time in eternity. And YOUR sin and my sin was carried by God. There has been NO other moment in eternity like that moment. As Jesus anticipated that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane his SWEAT dripped like blood. HEBREWS 10:9 tells us that Jesus WENT to the cross in accordance with his Father’s will; JOHN 14:31 tells us that Jesus did it because he loved his Father. But EPHESIANS 5:2 gives another reason why Jesus went to the cross: he went to the cross because he loves you and he loves me. The servant went to the CROSS for you and I—intentionally, consciously, fearfully, agonisingly—he did that for us.
Such is the human heart that men and women CHOOSE to live their own way. Isaiah has already asked, ‘Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the words of the servant’? (Isaiah 50:10). The death of the servant is still REJECTED and scorned. People can and do CHOOSE to live their own way. There are choices to be made.
To the ISRAELITES, Isaiah says in 55:6, ‘Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon’. Then the Lord says to the GENTILES in chapter 56, ‘And foreigners, bind yourselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord and to worship him […] these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer’ (Isaiah 56:6–7).
Please CHOOSE to love the name of the Lord. Please CHOOSE to worship him. In the words of Matthew HENRY, ‘Seek for him, and enquire after him, as your portion and happiness; seek to be reconciled to him and acquainted with him, and to be happy in his favour. Be sorry that you have lost him; be solicitous to find him; take the appointed method of finding him, making use of Christ as your way, the Spirit as your guide, and the word as your rule’.
Do you have a desire to serve the Lord with ALL your heart and soul and mind? Good. Now ask yourself, ‘How can I be GODLY in the situation that God has placed me? How do I strip away the UNIMPORTANT things in life? How do FOLLOW in the footsteps of the suffering servant with fresh conviction’?
When I left engineering it wasn’t because of FLASHING lights and mystical experiences. Janette left full-time teaching and we went to Bible College NOT really knowing what was on the other side. We knew it was the right thing to do and a deliberate DECISION was made. Are we SCARED of making deliberate decisions? Are we SCARED of making choices which MAY permanently change our life for sake of the gospel?
The servant-king DIED for you. He gave up his life for you. He was BRUISED for Cliff and for John and Kathryn and for Jenny. Imagine this, he even died for me! The Lord CRUSHED him—the Lord laid upon him the INIQUITY of us all. No-one was EXPECTING that the Christ would live and die this way. When Peter confesses Jesus as the ‘Christ’, the Jesus ‘began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again’ (Mk 8:31).
The RESURRECTION of the suffering servant is nothing new! It’s not a new idea! It’s anticipated in the fourth servant song. Look at Isaiah 52:13: the servant will be ‘raised’ and ‘lifted up’ and ‘highly exalted’. He will take a place of EQUALITY with God and kings will be left SPEECHLESS because of him (verse 15).
And at the OTHER end of the song we see further reward. The Lord is speaking in Isaiah 53:12, ‘Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he has poured out his life unto death’ (Isaiah 53:12).
When one is victorious in battle the SPOILS are there fore the sharing. In the ancient world there were many BATTLES fought and many spoils shared. Like the OTHER victors around him, the suffering servant will receive the SPOILS of his own victory. The servant will be exalted, rewarded and fully satisfied.
Praise God for the servant-king! ‘He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:5–6).
