Isaiah 53 "The Suffering Lamb"

                As we continue our Lenten series on the Lamb of God today, we turn our attention to Isaiah 53.  This chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah is commonly referred to as the Song of the Suffering Servant.  It is seen by many as being the key chapter in interpreting and understanding the book of Isaiah.  This chapter, along with Psalm 22, lists probably the most remarkable and specific prophecies of the atonement of the Messiah.  It is very much a chapter of Messianic prophecy.  As we read through the verses, we could have almost had a checklist going on in our minds, marking off the ways in which Jesus fulfilled the words spoken by Isaiah some 700 years prior to his being born.

                We see the first few verses talk of the Messiah being born and growing up like a young plant.  We are reminded of the fact that Jesus wasn’t just magically placed upon this earth as a nearly 30 year old man.  No, he was born just the same as any other human being has been and will be born.  He was born an infant and grew into an adult.  Jesus went through the steps of maturity just as any of us have.  He learned to walk, to feed himself, to write, etc.  We often don’t think of Jesus having to grow from the newborn baby lying in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes to the figure that John the Baptist pointed out last Sunday saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Perhaps that is because there really isn’t much biblical information given about Jesus during this period aside from Luke 2 where we’re told about Jesus as a boy reading the Scriptures in the temple.  Now, there is a ton of speculation out there and if you want some entertaining material to read; just go look online at all of the theories out there as to what Jesus was like as an adolescent.  However, if you do choose to look at any of this material, please don’t believe any of it to be verifiably true. 

Also, note that Isaiah says that this young plant grew “like a root out of dry ground.”  Dry ground usually isn’t very conducive for plant growth.  Elsewhere in Scripture when we find something growing and getting stronger, we are told that the ground is fertile and not dry or arid.  Dry ground is typically associated with something that isn’t healthy and ultimately dying.  This reference to this plant growing from dry ground alludes to Jesus’ very humble and meager beginnings in terms of the family and prestige (or lack thereof) that he was born into.  Verse 3 continues this by speaking of his being “despised and rejected by men.”  Now, we could say that this was both true of his life prior to the inauguration of and during his earthly ministry.

                Then, we start to really get into some things in verse 4.  We find phrases like “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”  There’s some language about the servant being seen as having been “smitten by God” which would indicate that he was getting what he deserved.  Indeed, many who were there that day when Jesus was crucified thought that he was suffering so because it was what he deserved for his crimes.  Instead, we know that Jesus’ suffering was because of what we had done and were going to do.  The extremity of his pain and suffering shows the enormity of his love for us.  We see something very similar to the words that we looked at from 1 Peter 2 last Sunday as Isaiah recorded, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his stripes we are healed.”  Do you remember those words from 1 Peter last Sunday?  By his wounds we are healed.  By his being crushed and chastised and wounded upon the cross, we are healed.  We are somehow healed through this act of both obedience and violence through Jesus Christ.

                If you recall, last Sunday, immediately after stating that it is by Christ’s wounds that we are healed, Peter went on to say, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  Well, immediately after saying that we are healed by the stripes of the suffering servant, Isaiah moves into some sheep language of his own.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”  Isaiah is pushing home here the idea that we are all broken, that we are all fallen.  We all stand sinful and condemned and in need of a Savior, a Messiah.  We undoubtedly can’t separate the use of the language about the lamb being led to the slaughter and the lamb being required for a sin offering in Leviticus 4 that we looked at last Sunday.  Christ has taken upon himself the sin, the iniquity of all mankind.  He was offered up as that sin offering that atones for our sins.  That’s what Isaiah was telling his audience will happen, even though it won’t come about for some 700 years.

                Verse 8 talks about the fact that his being put to death was a result of injustice.  Surely we can attest to just how unjust this act was seeing as how we are the ones who deserved such punishment and not Jesus.  Verse 9 says that despite his being killed in a manner reserved for the wicked, that his grave is with a rich man.  Jesus may have been seen as a common criminal.  He may have been put to death in the most humiliating manner of his day.  Remember, the cross was reserved for only the most heinous of offenders.  The cross was not just an execution, but an embarrassment.  It was one thing to be put to death, but an entirely different matter to be put to death in front of the public and have it drawn out over the course of several days.  However, the end of John 19 tells us about Jesus being buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  Remember, Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, and a wealthy man as well.  Jesus’ burial place inside of Joseph’s new and unused tomb was equivalent to the burial place of a man of great wealth and prestige.  I’ve always found it fascinating that the first time that Jesus is shown any kind of honor by any public official is after his earthly ministry was completed.

                This week, I was looking around at various commentaries about this most famous chapter in Isaiah’s prophecy.  I came across one outline of the song of the suffering servant that went like this:  Isaiah 52:13-15 as dealing with the destiny of the servant; 53:1-3 his life; 53: 4-6 his suffering; 53:7-9 his submission; and then finally 53:10-12 his reward.  But as we turn our attention to this final section according to this outline, beginning with verse 10 we find, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”  That doesn’t sound much like a reward thus far.  However, if we keep reading, we find that the reward for Christ’s life, suffering, and submission is that “he shall see his offspring.”  Now, this isn’t a genetic offspring of course.  Despite how many people might have taken Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code to be factual instead of fictional, Jesus never married nor had children.  No, this isn’t about genetic offspring, but all those who come to life through Jesus’ death.  “Out of the anguish of [Jesus’] soul he shall see and be satisfied…[God] will divide him a portion with the many…he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

                I’ll say again what I said last week, that even in God’s being just and punishing us for our sin, he didn’t leave us completely destitute and without hope.  Even in our failing to fulfill our part of the covenant of works that existed between God and mankind, God did not give us what we fully deserve.  The punishment for the breaking of a covenant, a bond in blood, was death.  We should have been put to death, Adam and Eve should have been instantly killed and humanity ended right then and there in the Garden, but they weren’t.  Sure, Adam and Eve (along with all of mankind), were cut off from God and banished from the Garden, but we were never abandoned and forsaken.  Banishment and abandonment are two very different things in terms of our relationship with God.  Banishment from the Garden simply meant that we could no longer enjoy things as God initially created them.  Abandonment would have meant that God completely turned his backs to humanity, and we know that isn’t true.  We have the entirety of Scripture after Genesis 3 that attests to that fact, as well as the ways that God has worked in this world since the completion of the cannon of Scripture. 

                Let me bring all of this back in and connect our text with our series for what little time I have left.  We fell in the person of Adam; we sinned and broke the covenant that existed between God and mankind.  God, instead of giving us what we deserved (death), promised to send a Messiah, a Redeemer into the world.  Until that time, God’s people were given rules and regulations as to how they were to live lives that honored God.  One of those rules was our text from Leviticus 4 about offering sacrifices to atone for our sins.  We saw that one of the sacrifices was to be a lamb, an unblemished lamb.  We saw last Sunday John the Baptist identify Jesus (mind you prior to any miracles or any other aspect of his earthly ministry) as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of mankind.  So, how was Jesus going to accomplish that?  Well, he was going to have to suffer.  He was going to have to receive the punishment that should have befallen Adam, that should have befallen Eve, and that should fall upon each and every one of us.  And not only was this punishment of death going to have to fall upon him, but he was going to have to fulfill the covenant of works that Adam (and consequently the rest of mankind) could not.  He was going to have to be completely obedient to the will of the Father during his life upon this earth.  Ultimately, the one who knew no sin become sin for us.  He was “numbered with the transgressors…and [made] intercession for the transgressors.”

                “Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world.”  The Lamb of God came to this world to suffer and die on our behalf.  He came to pay the price for our sins just as an unblemished lamb did during the sacrificial system prior to Christ’s work.  However, the precious blood of the Lamb of God covers all the sins of mankind and not just the sins of that one person for the moment.  And in the midst of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, he became not only the slain Lamb of God, but the Shepherd of God’s people.  After his ascension into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, he now watches over his sheep, whom he has given the gift of eternal life.