HoHum:
Why did Jesus die? This has been pondered for 2,000 years. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter said,“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” Acts 2:22, NIV. Later, to a group of Gentiles, Peter said, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38, NIV. Such a good man so how did he end up dying on a Roman cross? What crime had he committed that would allow this seeming miscarriage of justice? When Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ became a hit movie in 2004, the question hit the headlines. For a brief time, Jesus became fashionable again. Reporters discussed the movie and then talked about what the death of Christ meant. So what does it mean? We will never understand God until we understand the cross.
WBTU:
No chapter helps us more that Isaiah 53. In this chapter somehow Isaiah has a front row seat at Golgotha and personally witnessed the terrible suffering of Jesus. This is the very heart of the gospel. And the “heart of the heart” comes in Isaiah 53:4-6. No passage more clearly expresses the “why” behind the death of Christ. As we look at these verses, notice how many times Isaiah uses “our” and “we” and “us.” Read the passage and emphasize the plural pronouns.
Nothing in this passage makes sense until we feel the full weight of this truth: Jesus died for us. What he did, he did for us. What he suffered was for us. The pain and brutality and indignity of the cross, was all for us. From our perspective, we may say that Jesus was betrayed, tried, beaten, mocked, humiliated, crowned with thorns, convicted by a kangaroo court, falsely accused, beaten until his skin was shredded, forced to carry his own cross, and then publicly crucified, the most brutal form of execution in his day. If we focus on those events, we may come to the conclusion that Jesus shouldn’t have died, that it was all a big mistake, that somehow the powers of darkness finally triumphed over the light. The Bible never denies the responsibility of those who put Jesus to death. “You, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Acts 2:23, NIV. Yes, Jesus was murdered by his enemies. But that is not the end of the story. The Bible says that Jesus laid down his life, that no one took it from him. Clovis, the leader of the Franks, was told about the crucifixion of Christ. He was so moved that he leaped to his feet, drew his sword, and exclaimed, “If I had only been there with my army, the Franks!” No, Jesus could have called 10,000 angels (more but) but he never did because he did this willingly (John 10:18). That brings us to the real message of Isaiah 53:4-6. Jesus died on purpose, not by accident, so that sinners like you and me could be saved. Our Lord’s suffering was not his fault, it was ours. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Thesis: The more personally we read this passage, the more the death of Christ will mean to us
For instances:
I. He took our pain- Isaiah 53:4
When Isaiah speaks of what Christ has done for us, he does not start with our sin and our guilt. That comes later. He begins with our infirmities. More literally the text says that Christ has “borne” our griefs. This is a Hebrew word that means to lift up and carry away a heavy load. It was used in Leviticus 16 for the scapegoat who carried away the sins of the nation. That’s the idea here. Jesus came to lift the heavy burden of sadness caused by our sin and the pain of living in a sinful world. A famous gospel song puts it this way: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.” We have many griefs because we live in a fallen world. We have many sorrows because we ourselves are fallen people. We need someone who can bear our grief when the burden is too heavy for us. Grief is our reaction to loss, that might include division in our family, the loss of our job, the death of a beloved family member, and the pain of our past. In Christ we do not have some far off God, but in him we find a God who drew near to us, who came to us, who entered our world and became one of us, that he might carry our sorrows for us. Os Guinness tells the following story in No God but God: In one of the efforts to eradicate religious beliefs in the Soviet Union, the Communist Party sent KGB agents to the nation’s churches on a Sunday morning. One agent was struck by the deep devotion of an elderly woman who was kissing the feet of a life size carving of Christ on the cross. “Babushka (Grandmother)”, he said. “Are you also prepared to kiss the feet of the beloved general secretary of our great Communist Party?” “Why, of course,” came the woman’s reply. “But only if you crucify him first.” The last part of vs. 4 corresponds to vs. 3. We see this literally being fulfilled here: “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”” Luke 23:35, NIV. Sneering, scoffing- Smitten, stricken and afflicted by God (true when consider the atonement)
II. He took our punishment- Isaiah 53:5
He was pierced- as with a spear. He was crushed- pulverized, broken, ground to pieces. He was punished, chastised- beaten with a whip. By his wounds- His body cut, bruised, his skin flayed. If we run the clock back from 3 o’clock in the afternoon- the moment of his death- to about 1 o’clock in the morning and review what had happened to Jesus as he moves through those hours- what we discover is that our Lord has just been through 14 hours of torture. Arrested in the middle of the night, slapped, pushed around, mocked, slapped again, crowned with thorns that went into his scalp, scourged with a large strap studded with bits of bone and metal, his beard ripped out, beaten repeatedly, forced to carry his own cross, nails driven through his hands and feet, crucified. At this point a strange question comes to mind, Was Jesus a failure? Just look at his life. He was born into an unimportant family in an unimportant village. He was ignored, he was taken for granted, he was laughed at. When he speaks, the powers that be want nothing to do with him. He faces ridicule, opposition, and misunderstanding all his life. In the end he is crucified like a criminal. His sufferings in those last few hours are unspeakable. When he dies he appears to be yet another forgotten footnote in history. Working with the facts on a worldly level, if we stop at the crucifixion, we could make the case that our Lord was a failure. Even at that point, Jesus did not fail in what he came to do. He perfectly fulfilled the Father’s will. Look at we have in return for Jesus’s sacrifice:
Peace with God- “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1, NIV. Through Christ we can have peace that passes all human understanding.
Healed by God- We are healed from our guilt, healed from our hatred, healed from our doubt, healed from our shame, healed from our sin. Through Christ broken people are put back together again. Some would like to apply this to physical healing. The parallel verse to vs. 5 in the NT is “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 Peter 2:24, NIV. The context of Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 proves that the healing from sin is the meaning here. Shame to be healed physically but not spiritually- being spiritually cured goes into eternity. Right after vs. 24, we have vs. 25: “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:25, NIV. This goes back to Isaiah 53:6.
III. He took our place- Isaiah 53:6
Someone has said that Isaiah 53:6 is the John 3:16 of the OT because this verse makes the way of salvation so clear that we cannot miss it. Note that “all” is the first and the last word of verse 6 in the Hebrew. We have all sinned. We have all gone astray. We have all missed the mark. We have all turned to our own way. At this point we come across the great, glorious news of the gospel. God, the only one who can really do anything, has done something for us. God could have looked at the mess we made and said, “They deserve it. They messed up. Now let them face the consequences.” If God had done this, he would be 100% justified. God was under no obligation to rescue us when we wandered astray. We said, “Leave us alone!” God said, “I can’t do that!” “And the Lord has laid on him” That’s Jesus! That’s the great Servant of the Lord who came from heaven to rescue us. God laid our sins on Jesus. That’s the doctrine of substitution. That’s the heart of the gospel. He took my place when he died. God laid my sins on him. When Jesus was on the cross, he took the full penalty for our sins. H Orton Wiley says: “Sin deserves infinite punishment since God is infinite. Sin is guilt or a debt and that debt must be paid. This necessity is grounded in the infinite perfections of God. Either adequate satisfaction must be provided, or vengeance must be exacted. Man cannot pay this debt, for he is not only finite, but morally bankrupt through sin. Adequate satisfaction being impossible from a being so inferior to God as man is, the Son of God became man in order to pay the debt for us. Being God, he could pay the infinite debt; and being both human and sinless, could properly represent men. But as sinless He was not obligated to die, and owing no debt on his own account, He received as a reward for His merit, the forgiveness of sins.”
Would we like to go to heaven? We can. Isaiah 53 contains the good news we all need. If we want to go to heaven, pay attention to Isaiah 53:6. Remember that it begins and ends with the word “all.” One man gave his testimony this way: I stooped down low and went in at the first “all.” Then I stood up straight and walked out at the last “all.” The first “all” tells us that we are sinners, the last “all” tells us that Christ has paid the price for our sins. Go in at the first “all” and come out at the last “all” and we discover the way of salvation.
