Today we remember “Good
Friday”. It is a good day, not
because Jesus died a horrible death
at the hands of horrible, sinful
people. It is a good day because on this day God, in Christ provided an answer to a terrible dilemma which we could not fix.
This is the day when we remember that
the perfect, sinless Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus, gave His
life in exchange for all those
who trusted in His Name and in His work for them. This is the day on which
the Lord Jesus Christ provided an effective cure for
the problem of sin. This is the
day when redemption
became a reality.
This is the day when our sin died with Christ on the cross (Col.2:14,15). This is the day
when Christ paid for the penalty for
our sins. Oh, how our God knows
how to turn tragedy into triumph!
On Palm Sunday we worked through most of the 52nd chapter of Isaiah. The ESV entitles verses 1- 12, “The Lord’s coming salvation”, and I showed you on that Sunday how aptly
this text fitted into the context
of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.[1]
In the 4 gospels we see
that Christ came riding into Jerusalem in a most unassuming manner, as a servant
[2]
on a donkey, and yet the crowd shouted “Hosanna” (save we pray! Cf. Psalm 118:25 ). Now combine
that with the fact that Jesus’
name means, “Yahweh
saves”[3],
and then we understand that Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem was for the
purpose of saving His people from their sins. But
more than that, He did not just
ride into Jerusalem to preach good news –
the gospel. Jesus Himself was the gospel! He Himself was the good news in person, riding into Jerusalem to do
for His people what they could
never have done for themselves. They
were so weighed down by their own sins
and so weighed down by their nation’s
sins. As a result they had experienced
themselves forsaken by God (Isa. 49:14). People were acutely aware of their need for
a Saviour. The truth of Isaiah’s prophetic preaching (e.g. Isa. 45:22-24 ; 48:1,2) was ever before them, even while they were
experiencing the physical threats of the
assault of the Assyrians. It is
into this spiritual darkness
that the prophet Isaiah speaks his twin messages of doom and
encouragement. This is nothing new as you may recall from passages
such as Deuteronomy 28, in which
God spells out blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
Thus, Jesus came riding into a city so burdened with a sinful history and
burdened with present idolatry. He came riding into the city
of David which had been
favoured with so many
blessings in the past – the temple,
God’s manifest presence, the priesthood,
all which was designed to
be a blessing from God to
serve the people, helping them to remain
focussed on God in this earthly journey … and
yet, all that blessing was now terribly abused
and empty of the
true presence of God. So Jesus, the
gospel in person, entered the city
to save a people who could not
save themselves, and Isaiah
with joy sees the servant of God by faith and
by the Holy Spirit he declares: “How
beautiful upon the mountains are the
feet of him who brings good news, who
publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness , who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God
reigns.” etc. (52:7-10).
And please note, He
comes not only to Zion, symbolic of the
heart of Israel’s existence, but Isaiah
also declares, “The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall
see the salvation of our God.”
Thus Jesus, the Saviour came to die not only for the chosen Jews, but He came
to die for all the chosen people
among all the nations. As I said on Palm Sunday, so I say again : This is BIG!
And so this
amazing pre-amble, the triumphal entry in the ‘gospel of Isaiah’ (53:1-12)
gives way to Isaiah 52:13-53:12, that legendary and mind
boggling text which describes the death
and resurrection of Christ, more
than 700 years before it actually happened.
Just in passing we also want to remember
that it was this text that puzzled the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40, until God miraculously sent an expositor called
Philip to his
side, explaining that this scripture containing information concerning the mysterious suffering servant, was nothing less than the good news about Jesus (Acts
8:35). When the eunuch saw that he
believed in Jesus there and then and
he was baptised, and he went
on his way to his country rejoicing!
Our chosen text begins with these words : Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he
shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at
you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond
that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall
shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they
see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isa. 52:13-15)
Let us
now consider the closing
3 verses of Isaiah 52. Josh Hooker will pick up on Isaiah
53 tomorrow morning , the silent day of Easter, the day that
Jesus was in the grave .
TAKE ANOTHER CAREFUL LOOK AT THE SERVANT ! (V. 13)
"Behold my Servant.”
Stop, and look at Him!
… says Isaiah. This one who came riding
into Jerusalem, unassuming, on a donkey,
this servant ….look at Him! Do not be fooled by His unassuming appearance! Do not be fooled by
His humility! What He is about to do is
stupendous! Behold
! (Look!), says John the Baptist , the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29,36) “Behold, my servant shall act wisely…”. This is the servant
of God, and as such He will act
wisely. Another way to read this, according to the footnote is, “my servant
shall prosper”. Notwithstanding the fact that He looks so very unpromising, He will succeed in this divine mission. This text sets the direction for the rest of the chapter. Because
the servant acts with wisdom, the prosperity
or the success of his mission is guaranteed. Now this is
very important to understand, since at
face value you may not see Christ’s identity with the poor, and the powerless and the sinful
and weak, and you may not see His unassuming entry
into Jerusalem, and then His cruel trial and death in terms of a success
story. And so we ask the question as we contemplate Good Friday: What good can come out of a suffering
servant? The prophet, speaking for
God maintains:“Behold my Servant shall
act wisely”. He will prosper… We are of course privileged to know the story from
the other side of the cross. We now
know and appreciate the wisdom of
Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem, as He was
tortured by cruel men, as He was crucified and as He rose again. We
now know that this was the wisdom of God. He did prosper. He did succeed, and we are amazed
at the wisdom of God, so contrary to the wisdom and logic of this world. The apostle Paul comments on this in 1 Corinthians 2:6,7.
But the success
of His mission is seen in particular in this
phrase: “He will be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted”. Isaiah
goes on to describe Christ’s exaltation, and once again we are reminded of
this in Philippians 2: “Being
in very nature God … (He) made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant … He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a
cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow .. every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The suffering servant is the exalted Christ , who after His death and resurrection ascended to the Father in heaven, from where He shall
come again , but this time as conquering
King of kings and Lord of lords, to
judge the living and the dead and thus
to set up His eternal kingdom, just as He had proclaimed at His first coming.
BEHOLD THE SUFFERING SERVANT! (vv. 14, 15a)
Behold my servant! … But
now from
a completely different angle. “As
many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human
semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind”. The first portrait was
of the servant high and lifted up, and exalted! But now we find a
striking contrast as we are
introduced to a very different picture. Isaiah expresses “astonishment” that this exalted servant should be so disfigured … a man whose appearance is
marred beyond human semblance.
We
imagine that we hear someone asking : “Excuse me, but is this the same
person we are looking at?” He looks
scarcely human. He is entirely disfigured. Why this disfigurement? Verse 15a provides us with the profound
answer. “… so shall he sprinkle many nations.”
The sprinkling referred to here was something associated
with the work of the priests of the OT. The
sacrificial system which they administered was associated with the sprinkling of blood[4],
and this act signified an act of cleansing and purifying the sinner who by
faith had brought the blood sacrifice to the priests for the atonement of His. Isaiah, with this picture of the disfigured servant, is saying here
what he will frequently repeat in this text, namely that by the suffering of this servant there will
be healing and wholeness and cleansing. The most
famous text in this regard is Isaiah 53:5,6: “With His stripes we are healed … the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity
of us all.” The effect of the servants work will be BIG…by
His blood He will sprinkle the nations, not just those that believed in
Him in Jerusalem, and not just those who
believed in Him in Israel, BUT all who
would believe in Him among the nations! He will sprinkle them with His blood of atonement (Hebr. kippur à covering)
BEHOLD, OUR RESPONSE TO THESE CONTRASTING PICTURES OF JESUS (v. 15b-c)
“…kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not
been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand”.The image of the Jesus,
the suffering servant, whom we are called to look at is strangely mixed: triumphant, reigning, in
control, and full of authority.Yet we find Him also disfigured, distorted
and seemingly defeated. Mankind simply does not know how to deal with
such an image. We struggle to accept such redemptive, vicarious suffering. It is beyond our grasp.How do we reconcile this apparent
paradox? Isaiah leads us to a conclusion. “Kings shall shut their mouths
because of Him.” They do not know what to say. The picture is too powerful – it transcends
language. “… for that which
has not been told them they see; and that which they have not heard, they understand.” This unassuming servant, who is riding on the
foal of a donkey, who is
recognised by some as the Messiah in His triumphal entry, but who is then arrested, beaten and killed upon a cross is in fact the King of kings
and the Lord of lords.
And so the thought of the Servant’s supreme
exaltation causes the lesser kings of the earth to shut their mouths. The truth
about this servant has dawned. Sadly for many people and kings, the truth about
this great Servant King who has been revealed to the world has dawned , but not really sunk in. But on the day of His appearing , “every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD to the
glory of God the Father. “ On that
day it will have no saving effect .
The final question is therefore, do you trust this exalted , disfigured
King now for His work on the cross ?
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