Jesus, The Suffering Servant
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Note: This sermon was one of my last five sermons as pastor of First Free, St. Louis.
Introduction: I have struggled a lot with what I should preach in my final five Sundays with you, concluding on February 1. Obviously, I cannot complete the journey through Matthew that we started a little over a year ago and which we interrupted at chapter 12 with the recent series on Marks of a Healthy Church. There’s not enough time to start a new book and complete it. So, I decided, after much thought, to just preach five of my favorite chapters in the Bible–all chapters I have preached before, but most of them years ago. Believe me, it was difficult to narrow it to five, but I have done my best. I have chosen Isaiah 53, John 9, Ecclesiastes 12, Job 38, and Deuteronomy 34. The fact that four of the five are from the OT reveals my deep love for the Hebrew Scriptures.
Today, largely because this is communion Sunday, I have chosen as my text the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which has been called “the Fifth Gospel.” Perhaps it ought to be called the First Gospel, since it was written 700-800 years before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. It agrees so amazingly with the story of our Lord’s Passion, as written in the NT Gospels, that the only legitimate explanation of that phenomenon is that Isaiah 53 is a prophecy about Jesus which Isaiah wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So minute are the details that, as one writer put it, “it looks as if it had been written beneath the very Cross of Golgotha.” Another has called it the Scriptural Holy of Holies.
There was a time when liberal theologians (who generally reject the supernatural, and therefore, do not believe in prophecy at all) recognized that Isaiah 53 speaks of Christ, but they insisted that this portion of Isaiah was written after the time of Christ by some zealous Christian scribe, and was subsequently added to the OT prophet’s book. On that supposition, the reason it was so accurate is that it was history rather than prophecy. But then in 1948 a little Bedouin boy was throwing rocks in a cave and he heard a pot shatter. That led to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which included a manuscript of the entire book of Isaiah, dated at least 100 years before Christ. This copy of the book of Isaiah was 1000 years older than the earliest previous manuscript available but was virtually identical to what we already had in our Bibles.
Of course, the liberal skeptics didn’t change their minds about the impossibility of prophecy (for that would require them to be supernaturalists), so instead they changed their minds about the fact that Isaiah 53 had anything to do with Jesus Christ. They concluded that the Suffering Servant of whom the prophet speaks must be the nation of Israel or some unnamed hero.
Well, all I can say is that unbelief is almost unbelievable in the extent to which it will go to avoid the truth. The fact is, Isaiah 53 is either a supernatural prophecy or it is the greatest coincidence in the history of literature. We, of course, believe the former, because the NT expressly claims that it is a prophecy of Jesus. Do you recall the incident when Philip the evangelist met the Ethiopian eunuch on the deserted road to Gaza? The Ethiopian was reading from this very chapter of Isaiah. Listen to Acts 8:34-35: “The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” In addition, there are a number of other direct quotations and allusions from this chapter in the NT.
Friends, Isaiah 53 is the clearest proclamation of the substitutionary atonement of Christ in all the OT, and I think it serves beautifully to prepare our hearts for the Lord’s Table this morning. Will you pay close attention as we read Isaiah 53:
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life]and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
The prophet begins this great chapter with a rhetorical question designed to reveal how few true believers there really are: “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” The implication is, “Not many.” There weren’t many in that day, and there aren’t many today.
The character of the Servant (1-3)
As the prophet begins to describe God’s Servant, the coming Messiah, we must keep in mind that the tense of the verbs is what is called a prophetic perfect. The events are all future, but the prophet speaks in the past tense because to his mind the events are so vivid and so sure of fulfillment that they can be set forth as having already taken place.
The servant would grow up normally, but there would be some unusual things about Him.
His humble pedigree. It is described in this fashion: “like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.” A tender shoot is a reference to the volunteer twig which sometimes grows out of the trunk of a tree, drawing life and strength from it. It is definitely a part of the tree, but it appears in unwanted places, and generally it is cut off. Christ came from the Jewish nation but would be treated as an unwanted volunteer twig.
The “dry ground” refers to the lowly conditions and background in which the servant was to appear–the town of Bethlehem, the stable, His Virgin Mother, His lowly rearing in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth. A root in dry parched ground must, of course, struggle to survive, signifying that life would not be easy for the Servant. People would not compare Him with the tall cedars but rather with a lowly root. Then Isaiah speaks of His tragic appearance.
His tragic appearance. What did Jesus look like? As soon as that question is asked, our minds are drawn instinctively to the manliness but gentleness of Salmon’s familiar head of Christ. His eyes are gentle, His hair long and wavy, His beard well-trimmed. Generally, when Jesus is played on film or in the theatre He seems to bear a strong resemblance to that handsome face. But what does the Scripture say? “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” He wasn’t handsome. He wasn’t striking in appearance. There was nothing in Jesus’ outward appearance to attract people of the world. They would have welcomed a tall, good-looking warrior. But, this man? No way.
His rejection. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed him not.” The word, “despise,” does not always mean “to view with passionate hatred,” but it does always mean “to consider of no value.” Esau despised his birthright and Goliath despised David. In both cases the key emotion was that of contempt. Jesus was viewed by most of His compatriots as insignificant and of no value.
This treatment by His acquaintances made Him a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. These sorrows and sufferings were both physical and spiritual. As unbelievably painful as was the physical torture which Christ received, the spiritual pain of rejection by His own was far worse. Isaiah indicates that men found Jesus, particularly during His passion, to be so revolting to look upon that they turned their faces away as though He were stricken with some repulsive disease by God. In the previous chapter, which also speaks of the Suffering Servant, we read similarly: “There were many who were appalled at him–his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.” (Isaiah 52:14)
The rejection and unbelief that Isaiah depicts here is not all that different from what we find all around us today. While people “say” complimentary things about Jesus, they praise His ethics, they admire His parables, and they declare Him to be a good man and a great prophet, yet they despise the demands He makes upon their lives and the repentance He requires. They despise the sacrifice He expects and the total commitment He demands.
In verse 4 the prophet turns from the character of the Servant to a description of His suffering.
The Suffering of the Servant (4-10)
We learn very quickly that the suffering of God’s servant is not because of His own sin but because of ours, for He Himself was an innocent sufferer.
He was an innocent sufferer. (4-9) Notice who the guilty party is here: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows … he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities … the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Not one word is spoken regarding any sin or transgression or iniquity on the part of the Servant Himself. In fact, in v. 9 it specifically states, “He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” Jesus was perfectly innocent. Four different times in the NT we read that He committed no sin. He was the only human being of whom that can be said.
You know, it’s hard enough to suffer for something you’ve done, but it’s incredibly more difficult when you’re innocent but judged guilty, especially by those who have known you and should have trusted you. Years ago I remember reading in the newspaper about a priest in New York City was arrested and jailed on a robbery conviction. He was identified by several witnesses and judged guilty. Many of his friends and parishioners, stunned as they were by the bizarre incident, believed the allegations and wrote him off as a phony priest who had gotten what was coming to him. It wasn’t until sometime later that the real robber was caught, a man who bore a striking resemblance to the priest, resulting in misidentification. The priest testified later that the most painful part of the whole incident was not going to jail, though innocent, but being misjudged by his friends.
Jesus experienced that same pain, only to an infinitely greater degree. As verse 4 puts it, instead of considering Him to be God, men regarded Him as one punished by God. They should have been horror-struck at themselves, guilty sinners such as they were. But instead, they transferred their guilt to Him.
He refused to fight back. (7) Most of us react strongly to suffering, especially if we perceive that it is unjust. Even if we don’t fight back outwardly, we do so inwardly. At the very least we ask the question, “Why me, Lord?” But when Jesus was oppressed and afflicted, He didn’t even open His mouth. This recalls, of course, the amazing composure He exhibited in front of Pilate, who taunted Him without mercy. The Scripture says, “He answered him not a word.” The Apostle Peter quotes this verse when he urges us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23) You know something? The only way to handle unjust criticism and suffering is with the knowledge that there is a righteous judge who will resolve it all in the end.
He took our place. (4-10) This, friends, is the most important fact of all regarding the suffering of God’s Servant, Messiah Jesus. Since He was innocent, He must have been suffering in someone else’s place, as someone else’s substitute. And that is exactly what comes across throughout our passage. The fact that the Servant’s death is substitutionary is particularly conveyed through the term “guilt-offering” in verse 10. In OT times the guilty Jew had to present a sacrifice to atone for his guilt, and that sacrifice had to be perfect. The lamb had to be without spot or blemish–no diseases, no broken bones, no mangy wool, no emaciated appearance. And the reason was that the guilt-offering symbolized a substitute for the sinner himself. Only a perfect sacrifice can atone for an imperfect person.
There are many inadequate views today of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Some see in His death a fine example of self-giving love. Others see in His death a moral influence for righteousness. These theories of the atonement contain some measure of truth, but they are totally inadequate without the fundamental truth that when Jesus suffered and died, He died as our substitute. He took our place. Every one of us deserved to die because of our sin, but Jesus said to His Father, “Please don’t put them to death. I will die for them, in their place.” He who had no sin became as sin for us. He propitiated or satisfied the wrath of God toward our sin. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.”
In the very familiar verse 6 we are compared to sheep. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Years ago I saw a newspaper article regarding a flock of 400 sheep in Prairie, Idaho. These sheep had plunged to their deaths off a 60-foot cliff after being spooked by a black bear and her two cubs. A shepherd saw them follow one another over the cliff to certain destruction. What a poignant picture of the human condition! We are foolish. We are headstrong. We are self-destructive. And we would be hopeless if it weren’t that “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The concept of that is mind-boggling. Imagine a huge funnel over the Cross, and into that funnel all your sins are placed–thoughts, words, deeds, omissions. Then add to that the sins of everyone for whom He died. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Is it any wonder that He cried out to His Father, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” Furthermore, it is incredible that anyone who knows what Jesus endured would ever suggest that there is more than one way to heaven. Why would God have ever given His one and only Son, and why would Jesus have ever endured the pain of being our sin-bearer, if there had been any other way to provide for our forgiveness?
His suffering was the Father’s will. (10) The Servant and His Father agreed together that He must suffer and die, and neither of them acted reluctantly. Verse 10 reads, “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” The KJV has an unfortunate translation here, as it reads, “The Lord was pleased to crush him.” I do not believe that in any way the Father took pleasure in the death of His Son, yet it was part of His plan. We must remember that not everything the Father wills is what He desires.
What is important to recognize here is that Christ’s life was never ultimately in the hands of wicked men but in the Father’s hands. This is no way absolves them from responsibility, but it simply makes it clear that they were not in control. Jesus said to Peter in the Garden, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). But He didn’t make that appeal, because He knew that our eternal salvation depended upon His sacrifice.
So far, we have seen the character of God’s Servant-Messiah and we have examined the nature of His suffering. Finally, the prophet wants us to know the Rewards that are His for His great act of love.
The Reward of the Servant (10-12)
In verse 10 we read, “Though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.” The first reward we see here is that …
He will see His spiritual offspring. (10) There is no greater reward for ministry than seeing people come to faith and then grow in that faith. Those of you who have had the privilege of leading someone to Christ never forget the thrill. Every time you see that person you thank God that He used you in some way to bring the water of life to that person. But in truth, none of us has ever saved anyone. We have at best been a channel of God’s grace, an earthly vessel (“a clay pot” is what Paul calls us) through which the treasure of salvation is carried. But for Jesus, every time someone turns in faith to Him and becomes a child of God, it is a direct reward for His suffering. Every believer is a jewel in His crown. Each one is a trophy of His grace.
He will live after death. (10) The concept of resurrection of the dead is not as clearly taught in the OT as in the New, but it is by no means absent. Here in verse 10, for example, it says, “He will prolong His days.” Well, Messiah is already dead and assigned a grave according to verses 8 & 9, so the only legitimate understanding of “prolong His days” is life after death or resurrection. We see what is, perhaps, an even stronger hint of the resurrection in verse 11: “After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life.” When God raised Jesus from the dead, He in effect vindicated Him and rewarded Him for His selfless sacrifice.
He will be satisfied. (11) There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done, is there? I really feel sorry for lazy people because they so seldom experience the exhilaration of seeing a hard task brought to fruition. That satisfaction is its own reward. Verse 11 reads, “After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.” When Jesus sees you and me and myriads of others who are redeemed sinners, He says to Himself, “It was worth it all.”
The Hebrew term used for “suffering” in verse 11 is sometimes used of labor pains. The travail a mother experiences is difficult, sometimes almost unbearable. But when the child is born and begins to grow, the pain is soon forgotten and the mother is satisfied that the pain was worth it all. She dwells no longer on the pain but on the reward. When God completed His work of creation, He said, “It is good.” When Jesus finished His work, He too said, “It is good.” He was satisfied.
He will be exalted. (12) Look again at the last part of verse 11 and the first part of 12: “By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong.” God here promises His servant “a portion with the great.” That’s a poetic understatement if there ever was one, for the NT makes it clear that His portion would be as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Listen to Paul’s description of Christ’s exaltation in Philippians 2:9-11:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should 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.”
This also fits perfectly with 52:13: “He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.”
But He will not be selfish in His exaltation, for “He will divide the spoils with the strong.” That is, those of us who are His children by faith will reign with Him and will be rewarded by Him. His triumph and His victory will become ours. Now, finally, the last part of verse 12 gives us a brief recapitulation.
A review of the Servant’s work (12)
Once again the death of God’s Servant is mentioned: “He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many.” Three facts we have already seen are re-emphasized here:
He died voluntarily, humbly, and in our place. The voluntary nature of Christ’s death is seen in the fact that He “poured out” his life unto death. The humiliating aspect is seen in the fact that He was “numbered with the transgressors.” This phrase is quoted in Mark 15:28 to show that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified between two thieves. Not even in His death did He receive respect. And the substitutionary nature of His death is once again clearly stated in that “He bore the sin of many.”
However, one new fact is introduced to us in the final words of the chapter, and it is that He intercedes for us continually.
He intercedes continually. “For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” Have you thought recently about the fact that Jesus is praying for you? If you’re already a believer, He is praying that you will overcome temptation, that you will remain faithful, that you will produce fruit. He is constantly pleading your case before the Father as Satan hurls accusations against you day and night. (Rev. 12:10) He doesn’t deny that you sinned; rather He says to the Father, “I died for that sin.”
But if you are not a Christian, I believe Jesus is also praying for you–that you will respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and receive Him as Lord of your life. Whatever His prayer is for you, it is based upon the fact that He has already met all your spiritual needs through His sacrifice on the Cross.
God’s Suffering Servant has finished the work He was sent to do, but what have you done with the Servant? Have you said “yes” to Him? Have you renounced your own righteousness and accepted His? Have you received Him as your Lord and Savior?
DATE: January 4, 2004
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Suffering servant
Substitutionary atonement
Death of Christ
Intercession of Christ