Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The King: Prophesied to Suffer WC McCarter
Introduction
In this poem
which has been called a Servant Song, we read about the divine movement of
redemption that sees God leave His place of glory, descend to earth to suffer
in the place of the world, and return again to His heavenly place. Jews have
most often claimed that the Suffering Servant in this song, and the three the
precede it, is an “ideal Israel.” Yet, Christians have always interpreted this
passage as Messianic, that is, the Suffering Servant is Christ and the song
shows that the king was prophesied to suffer. This prophesy is the clearest Old
Testament passage concerning what Christ would do on the cross. It is so clear
to Christians that many have called it the “Fifth Gospel.” When the deacon,
Philip, met the Ethiopian eunuch on the desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza,
the man was reading from Isaiah 53. Look with me there at Acts 8:26-35.
Like Philip,
I would like to preach Jesus to you this morning from Isaiah 53.
READ Scripture- This is the Word of God
The Report (13-15)
The last paragraph
of Isa 52 serves as an introduction into Isa 53 which is called the Fourth
Servant Song. The prophet introduces us to this figure in chapters 42:1-4;
49:1-6; and 50:4-9. This last Song is the climax of all the songs and is the
clearest proclamation of the Gospel in the OT.
Isaiah
becomes this proclamation with the word, “Behold!” which is one of his
favorites to grab the hearer’s attention. He says that the Servant shall deal
prudently or act wisely, which in wisdom literature is to say that He will be
successful. A threefold exaltation is used for the Servant to show emphatically
that He will be exalted far above all others. As astonishing as the height of
His exaltation will be, the lowliness of His humility will be just as great. He
is said to be so disfigured that onlookers would not only say on the individual
level, “Who is He?” but they would also say on the corporate level, “Is this
human?” He would not even look like the rest of the sons of men, or “humanity.”
Despite this news, the Servant will still be exalted. He will still do
something great, something that will influence the whole world. He will
surprisingly sprinkle many nations. Kings will not know what to say and will
keep their mouths shut out of honor and respect for Him.
Who Has Believed the Report? (1)
I believe
that prophet poses the question of verse one and then answers his own question
with another question. This is very artistic and poetic. Who could ever believe
this report that Yahweh’s Servant could be successful and highly exalted when
hearing and seeing His great suffering? Who can believe this? Who but the ones
to whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed? Let me say the same thing in
more straightforward language. Who in the world could believe that a suffering
and severely marred man could accomplish anything? Only those who have turned
to the revelation of God with an open mind and received what He has said about
the suffering of the Servant. Only those who are willing to accept what God has
said and what God is doing. Let me tell you plainly, only those who look at the
cross with God’s perspective will ever see anything good and beautiful.
The world
looks at Jesus on the cross and they see one thing while believers look at Him
crucified and see another thing. Let me show you this from Isa 53, and let’s
interpret the cross with this Scripture.
What the World Sees (14b, 2-3, 4b, 7a, 8b)
Why can the
world not see that Jesus is the “Arm of the Lord”? They see something
completely different because they are not looking through the lens of the
revelation of God. They see a man whose appearance was completely disfigured
from the beatings, torture, and crucifixion. But, even before that, the world
could only see a mere human boy. He did not appear to be God (He grew up before
Him), He had natural growth (tender plant), He was not expected (out of dry
ground), and He was not physically special (no beauty, majesty, or desirability).
He was simply despised and rejected, not only in His earthly life, but
especially on the cross. The world only sees a man of sorrows who is acquainted
with grief. The world hid from Him. They wanted nothing to do with Him. They
despised Him and did not esteem Him at all. They thought that He died because
of His own sins or because He could not keep His mouth shut.
What the Believer Sees (13-14a, 4a, 5-6,
8c-12)
When we look
at Jesus Christ on the cross,
we see the God-man bearing our sins and carrying our sorrows. We
see Him wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities,
and chastised for our peace. His stripes are for our
healing (spiritually speaking), and the iniquity of us all was laid on Him.
This is what we see. He was stricken
for our transgressions. Here we see
that His death was not merely a physical one. We have the theology, doctrine,
and vocabulary here for what we believe happened on the cross. And, probably,
the key to our understanding that His death was more than a physical one comes
in verse ten. His soul was made an offering for sin. You see, He was
in great physical pain because His death was human, physical, and literal, but
He was in even greater agony than that. Jesus Christ took the sins of the world
upon His sinless soul. His sinless soul absorbed the sin of the human race from
history past and history future. His was a once-for-all death as an offering
for sin. This is God’s one-and-only solution for the sin problem.
Penal Substitution: Christ paid the penalty for our sins as our
substitute.
What the Reformers saw:
“That we may
know his death to be connected with his condemnation. . . . He died so that the
penalty owed by us might be discharged, and he might exempt us from it. But
since we all, because we are sinners, were offensive to the judgment of God, in
order to stand in our stead, he desired to be arraigned before and earthly
judge, and to be condemned by his mouth, so that we might be acquitted before
the heavenly tribunal of God.” He was “condemned in the presence of an earthly
judge, that we should be absolved before the judgment seat of our God.” –John
Calvin
"Since
Jesus Christ became a substitute for us all, and took upon Himself our sins,
that he might bear Gods terrible wrath against sin and expiate our guilt, he
necessarily felt the sin of the whole world, together with the entire wrath of
God, and afterwards the agony of death on account of this sin." –Martin
Luther
Conclusion and Christian Application
So, you see,
the Bible/Christianity/Gospel is unique in its doctrine of atonement. No other
religion, whether big or small, on the face of this earth offers a true,
once-for-all remedy for the sin problem. The Gospel says, Jesus has taken our
place as our substitute to bear our penalty for sin. This doctrine is taught
throughout the Bible. It was foreshadowed and prophesied in the OT, seen
clearly in the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, and it was proclaimed
throughout the world beginning with the Apostles.
We think of Abraham
who said in Gen 22:8, God will provide Himself the lamb. The Passover lamb in
Exod 12 was also a foreshadowing of God passing over our sins because of
Christ. The scapegoat in Lev who took away the sin of the worshiper was also
another foreshadowing. Of course, this message is declared no more clearly in
the OT than in Isa 53.
And what was
it the Apostles and early Christians proclaimed? 2 Cor 5:21 says that God made
Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. Gal 3:13 says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us on the tree. 1 Pet 2 says that Christ suffered
for us, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
You have to
look at the cross with the perspective of God. You have to see beauty and
success through the suffering and death of Christ. You have to see that His
death was a sacrifice for your sin and my sin and our sin. You have to see that
this was the divine plan from the beginning of time. He is the lamb who takes
away the sin of the world. You have to see it, hear it, believe it, trust it,
and treasure it. This is the Gospel, the Good News.