The Sacrifice of the Lord's Servant

Today's readings are from Isaiah 49, 50, 51, 52, 53

This section of Isaiah seems to go from earth to heaven and back again.

"And now the Lord speaks—
the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant,
who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.
The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength."

Isaiah's "servant" is the Messiah. He is the one who is called to come to Israel and lead it back to the covenant God made with them, that they subsequently have wandered away from and broken.

The marks of this servant are his faithfulness to listening to God the Father:
In chapter 50,

"The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will."

At the end of chapter 52, the servant's role begins to be detailed:

"See, my servant will prosper;
he will be highly exalted.
But many were amazed when they saw him.
His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,
and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man."

He is both exalted and human. He is both successful and debased. Without the chapter division, it continues in chpt 53.

"My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care."

The Renaissance Jesus that looks so handsome, with long flowing hair and a the sleek muscular body bears no resemblance to the prophet Isaiah's picture. Not only was he normal, but he was despised...one who brought out anger, thoughts of disdain, rejection and grief. God's purposes were hidden from most, but he makes them clear:

"Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed."

The 53rd chapter of Isaiah reminds me of God's great work in his son Jesus. Who could have understood what God's plan were? How could we understand that we are not able to solve the dilemma of our sin and rebellion? It is only in seeing that God raised up "his servant" - Jesus, our Savior, as the one who sacrificed himself for our sins that we understand the servant of the Lord.

Peace

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