Our Suffering Servant

Our Suffering Servant

 Jesus is depicted as God’s suffering Servant, who took upon himself our pain and transgressions (Isaiah 53:1-12). He is the Messiah, not conquering the world not only with his mighty power and wise counsel, but also through his profound suffering, self-sacrifice, and boundless love. To resolve the problem of all sin and suffering of human beings, God himself provides himself to deliver them from their transgressions and suffering, as T. F. Torrance writes: “God provides a way for the saving and healing of the world and the vanquishing of all its evil, and he does so by paying for it at infinite cost to himself in the sacrifice of Christ as the Lamb of God” (T. F. Torrance, Christian Doctrine of God, 248). His love bridged the gap between righteousness and wickedness and embraced humiliation and shame.

He chose to stand with sinners, becoming their companion, showering us with his love abundantly. Even as we strayed like sheep, the Father placed upon the Son our sins, burdens, and crosses. Thus, he endured our deserved punishment and curse. Strife was needed for healing; rejection for acceptance; punishment for peace; oppression for liberation; sacrifice for reconciliation; death for resurrection; resurrection for glory. Praise the Lord!

I encourage the mediation of Isaiah 53:1-12:

“1Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He [Jesus] 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.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain [our past, present and future pain]
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 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 its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 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.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    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.
12 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.”

Amen.