The High Price Of Peace

The High Price of Peace

Isaiah 53:1-12

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - May 26, 2014

*[PIC 1] One of the most famous pictures of World War II is of five brave Marines raising the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima. More than five thousand Marines gave their lives in that horrific battle. Think about that: 5,000 Marines gave their lives to capture an 8-square-mile island from the Japanese. They did that, because the life of our nation and the lives of freedom-loving people all over the world depended on it.

*[PIC 2] Today there is a large statue to honor the men who fought and died in that terrible battle. The statue is based on this picture, and it is just across the Potomac River from Washington D.C.

*The man in the center of the Iwo Jima picture was John Bradley. After the war, Bradley moved back to Antigo, Wisconsin, married his high school sweetheart, and raised a family. John Bradley won the Navy Cross for saving a fellow Marine's life, but he preferred not to talk about the war. And he absolutely refused to accept the hero worship that others tried to put on him. When his young son James said something to his Dad about being a hero, John Bradley replied: "The heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn't come back." (1)

*Our veterans would say the same thing. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and it should be much more than a day-off for us. We should remember the over one million men and women who sacrificed their lives to help make us free and keep us free.

*Today we are talking about the high price of peace, and the high price of peace is death. Someone had to die. But the only one who could die to give us peace with God was Jesus Christ. God led Isaiah to prophesy this great truth 700 years before Jesus was born. So, on this Memorial Day weekend we remember those who died for our country, and we remember Jesus.

1. We remember Jesus, because He is the one who stood in our shoes.

*Church: That's what Jesus did. He stood in our shoes.

[1] There will be times when we feel undesirable and ugly. Verse 2 reminds us that Jesus has been there. As Isaiah said, "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

[2] There will be times when we feel lonely, despised and rejected. Jesus has been there. In the first part of vs. 3: "He is despised and rejected by men. . . And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."

[3] There will be times when we are in sorrow and grief. Jesus has been there. In vs. 3, He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

[4] There will also be times when we are bruised and in pain. Jesus has been there too. In the first part of vs. 5: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities."

*Whatever you are going through, and whatever you will go through, the Lord Jesus understands, because He has been there too. And He went there for us! In vs. 4: "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows"

*In James Michener's historical novel "Hawaii," an old man got sick with the terrible disease of leprosy. The year was 1870, and lepers were outcasts in Hawaiian society. They were forced to live in leper colonies far from their loved ones.

*When the old man shared this sad news with his family. His wife knelt down before him and offered herself to be his "kokua." A kokua was a healthy person who willingly committed to go with and nurse a patient with leprosy. These kokuas moved to the leper colony and ran the risk of also catching that horrible, crippling, incurable disease. So before they were allowed on the ship that took them away from home, an official would stand on the deck and ask them: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" (2)

*The kokuas had to be willing to take on the disease. They had to be willing to stand in the leper's shoes, and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. So we remember the one who stood in our shoes.

2. And we remember the one who brings our blessings.

*Jesus Christ brings our blessings! Think about the blessings of peace and healing we see at the end of vs. 5. There God's Word says this about Jesus: "The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. These are just two of the great blessings Jesus wants to give His people.