The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 52:13–15 ESV

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 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.

INTRODUCTION

I think it is difficult for us to completely understand or comprehend how brutal and violent crucifixion was in the 6th century BCE.

Crucifixion was a method of capital punishment practiced across several periods of history, most prominently from the 6th century BCE to the 4th century CE, employed by cultures such as the Persians, Carthaginians, and Romans. The Roman Empire widely used it, perfecting it as a form of torture to deter rebellion, and the practice was only officially abolished by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century CE. 

CRUCIFIXION IN A ROMAN CONTEXT

Social control: The Romans used public crucifixions to make a powerful, visible statement about the consequences of opposing their rule.

Reserved for certain groups: Because it was so shameful, it was typically reserved for those without Roman citizenship, such as slaves, foreign enemies, and political agitators. 

Note: When Constantine abolished crucifixion around the 4th century CE. The reason for abolishing crucifixion was, in large part, out of a respect for the Christian faith and, more significantly, the crucifixion of Christ. 

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Many have considered the chapter organization at this point in Isaiah a passage of dismemberment. It’s hard to imagine 52:13-15 as not being a part of the larger text of chapter 53. The text begins with “Behold my Servant,” which is the kicking off of the 4th of the suffering servant passages. 

The servant shall act wisely by being high and exalted by the Father.

EXALTATION DEFINED

Exaltation refers to the raising up of Jesus Christ by God the Father — His resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and eternal glory. It’s the counterpart to His humiliation (His incarnation, suffering, and death).

1. God’s Wisdom is Displayed Through Human Weakness

God’s wisdom is most clearly displayed not by eliminating weakness, but by working through it to accomplish His redemptive purposes.

vs. 14 Christ’s appearance would be so disfigured that onlookers would wonder if he was even human (v. 14). This refers to the repulsive effects of scourging and crucifixion on the human body, how Jesus’s bones would be out of joint and how his body would be covered with blood.

THE PARADOX OF WISDOM

1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God’s wisdom turns human logic on its head.

We tend to equate wisdom with strength, control, and success.

But in the gospel, God reveals that true wisdom is the ability to bring salvation, glory, and life out of what seems weak, broken, and hopeless.

Paul explains that God chose a crucified Messiah — a symbol of weakness and shame — to reveal His saving power and confound human pride.

In other words: The cross looks like foolishness to the world, but it’s the ultimate expression of divine wisdom — because it defeats sin and death in the least expected way.

*In God’s Wisdom, the Exalted Becomes Unrecognizable

THE CROSS AS THE PINACLE OF GODS WISE AND GOOD PLAN

1 Corinthians 1:23–24 ESV

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The cross reveals God’s wisdom in several layers:

Justice and mercy meet: Sin is punished and sinners are forgiven in one act (Romans 3:25–26).

Strength through surrender: Jesus conquers evil not by force, but by love and obedience (Philippians 2:6–8).

Victory through apparent defeat: By dying, He destroys the power of death (Hebrews 2:14–15).

Human weakness became the vessel of divine victory.

Isaiah 53:1–3 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

*In God’s Wisdom, Jesus came to Earth in an Ordinary, Unassuming Way

How Art and Historical Renderings of Jesus are Inaccurate

Most images of Jesus are inaccurate because they are not based on historical records but are instead artistic interpretations from later eras that often portray him with European features like light skin, light hair, and blue eyes, which is inconsistent with his historical background as a first-century Jewish man from the Middle East.

Furthermore, the idealized and often androgynous appearance common in art is often a result of blending his image with Greco-Roman pagan gods and is not supported by scripture, which gives a very different description of the glorified Christ. 

WHY DID GOD CHOOSE FOR JESUS TO COME IN SUCH AN ORDINARY WAY?

I believe there are several key insights we can gain from what we know about Jesus and his ministry. 

a) To reveal God’s power through weakness.

The “arm of the Lord” symbolizes God’s mighty power—the same arm that delivered Israel from Egypt. Yet, in Jesus, that power came disguised in weakness: a baby in a manger, a carpenter from Nazareth, a man with “no beauty or majesty.”

God chose this paradox so that His saving power would not be mistaken for human power. → As Paul later says, “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

In other words: God hides His strength in apparent weakness so that faith, not outward impressiveness, recognizes His work.

Cultural Problem Today

People are looking for and waiting for the spectacular, rather than the ordinary, everyday means of God’s mercy and grace. Every week in the community group, we engage in what the world might perceive as weak, ordinary, and powerless activities. However, I would conclude that it is some of the most powerful things we participate in every week. 

While Jesus was still lying in a manger in Bethlehem, the shepherds and Magi came to kneel at a feeding trough to a newborn baby who had yet to possess the ability to speak or carry on a logical conversation. Many people would view this as weak and powerless. I would suggest it is full of the power of God’s mighty arm on full display. 

b) To Identify Fully with Humanity

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.” (Isaiah 53:2)

Jesus didn’t come as a divine celebrity but as an ordinary man growing up in a humble village.

“Dry ground” pictures a spiritually barren world—Israel under Roman occupation, morally parched and awaiting life.

By entering our lowliness, Jesus experienced the full range of human weakness and limitation (Hebrews 2:14–18; 4:15).

In other words: He came all the way down to where we are—so no one could say, “God doesn’t understand me.”

Hebrews 4:14–15 ESV

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

c) To be Despised and Rejected in Our Place

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…” (Isaiah 53:3)

Humanity’s response to the Servant’s humility was rejection. The world prizes beauty, wealth, and status—but God’s Servant came in the opposite form.

His ordinary appearance exposed our hearts: we are drawn to externals, not to holiness.

His rejection foreshadows the cross, where He would be despised by men yet accomplishing salvation for those who despised Him (John 1:10–11).

In other words: His ordinary humanity became the means of extraordinary redemption.

d) To Display God’s Glory Through Grace, Not Glamor

If Jesus had come in dazzling beauty or royal splendor, people might have followed Him for shallow reasons—miracles, status, or power.

Instead, God’s glory was revealed in self-giving love, obedient suffering, and resurrection triumph (Philippians 2:5–11).

The true beauty of Christ was moral and spiritual—seen in His compassion, obedience, and sacrificial love.

In other words: God redefines glory. The most glorious person in history wore no crown until it was of thorns.

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 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.

2. God’s Wisdom Knew that Dumb Sheep Needed a Substitute

So Jesus’s central mission was not to perform temporary healings for people who would later die anyway. Many preachers have misread Isaiah 53:4–5 and concluded that Christ’s atonement guarantees physical healing in this present age if we have faith to believe it.

Rather, Christ’s mission was to die on the cross as a substitute for the sins of his people, winning eternal life in a future world where disease and death will be abolished forever.

Vs. 6 begins with the words “All We.” That is an all inclusive statement meaning that none are excluded from being the dumb sheep who have gone astray. The dumb sheep that jumps right back into the ditch again, and again.

1) God’s Plan was Established before Creation.

Key Verse: “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” — 1 Peter 1:20 Even before Adam and Eve sinned, God had already purposed Christ as the Lamb who would redeem the world. Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This shows that substitution was not an afterthought—it was central to God’s eternal design.

2) God knew Humanities Need

Man tried to cover themselves in the garden but were unable to atone for their sins. Heb. 9:22 “Without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin.”

3) God gave pictures of substitution throughout the Old Testament

Every Sacrificial system was a foreshadowing

Gen. 22 Abraham and Isaac

Exodus 12 The Passover Lamb

Exodus 16 The day of atonement and the scapegoat

4) The Cross Reveals God’s Foreknowledge of Love

God did not improvise the Cross He Orchestrated it.

*There is a determined pursuit of our own ways in everything we say or do.

The Problem that all people have is that they need a substitute. But, not just any substitute will do.

What is substitutionary atonement — the truth that Christ suffered not for His own sin, but in the place of sinners, bearing their guilt and punishment so they might receive peace and healing.

Why is it so, important for us to grasp and understand substitutionary atonement? If someone does not grasp their need for a substitute to die in their place to pay the penalty of their sin, then they will continue to try other avenues on their own to reach a state of holiness and entrance into heaven.

Let’s unpack each of these verses carefully.

God’s Solution for the Pursuit of our Own Ways.

a) The Servant Bears our Suffering (Isaiah 53:6)

WHAT IT MEANS

The verbs “borne” (nāśāʾ) and “carried” (sābal) are sacrificial terms—used elsewhere for the priest who “bears” the iniquity of the people (Leviticus 16:22).

The Servant doesn’t just sympathize with our pain; He takes it upon Himself as if it were His own.

Yet the onlookers misunderstood His suffering — they thought God was punishing Him for His own sin (“smitten by God”), not realizing He was suffering for them.

Substitution pictured: He takes our suffering instead of us—a divine exchange of sorrow.

b) The Servant is Pierced for our Transgressions (Isaiah 53:5)

Every Phrase Evokes the Substitute

He was Pierced for Our Transgressions —————- Violently killed not for His sin but ours; the word points to a mortal wound. Romans 4:25 “25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Transgression is a willful deliberate rebellion against God’s law. Not just a weakness or mis-step on our part.

He was Crushed for Our Iniquities _____________The weight of sin’s judgment fell entirely upon Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Iniquity is the inner twisting of the heart perversion and moral corruption.

The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him ————————- He took the discipline we deserved so we could be reconciled to God. Romans 5:1 “1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

With His Wounds we are Healed —————————— His physical wounds bring spiritual healing—restoration from sin’s damage. 1 Peter 2:24 “24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

The witnesses realize that they themselves deserved those sufferings and that death, but that the Servant took their place. Substitution was not a new thought to the Israelites; it was enshrined in the law of Moses.

Ever since that law had been given to Israel, lambs and other animals had been sacrificed in the place of sinners.

But now the witnesses see that this same principle is at work in the suffering and death of the Servant. Their peace with God, the healing of their broken relationship with him, was secured by the Servant’s death.

c) The Servant Takes Our Guilt as His Own

Humanity’s problem is universal: “all have gone astray” — every person is guilty of rebellion (Romans 3:23).

But the Lord “laid on Him” (literally caused to meet upon Him) all our iniquity. This is the heart of substitutionary atonement: our sin meets the Servant, and He bears it fully.

The same Hebrew root (pāgaʿ) means “to strike or cause to fall upon,” suggesting a deliberate act of God’s justice transferred to the innocent substitute.

Substitution completed: The guilty go free because the innocent bears the penalty in their place.

THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL

Salvation is not earned by our works but accomplished by our substitute.

God’s justice and mercy meet perfectly at the cross — sin is punished, yet sinners are forgiven.

The Servant’s suffering is not accidental; it is the deliberate, loving plan of God to redeem His people.

The Courtroom Exchange

Illustration: Imagine standing before a judge, guilty of every charge, knowing the sentence is death. But before the gavel falls, the judge steps down from the bench, takes off his robe, and says,

“I will serve your sentence in your place.”

That’s what happened at Calvary — justice was satisfied because mercy took our place.

Connection: We are the guilty; Christ the innocent Judge became our substitute.

“The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all

Isaiah 53:7–9 ESV

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

*The Substitute is a Sinless Silent Sufferer

I often wonder, as Isaiah recounted this fourth stanza, if he was recalling his own experience, as recounted in Isaiah 6, where he was confronted with the absolute holiness of God. He had confessed that he himself was unclean and that he dwelt among unclean people (5).

Immediately, he was assured of his own cleansing (by the symbolism of a live coal taken from the altar).But what about his fellow Israelite people? How could they ever be made clean without compromising God’s holiness? Now, Isaiah sees the answer to the people's transgression. 

Oppressed and Afflicted

This speaks of Christ willingly subjecting himself to the unimaginable torture and beatings that led to the cross. The scourging with the cat-o'-nine-tails whip was known as almost certain death. The beating was intended to inflict the greatest amount of pain and injury without killing a person. 

The thing is that the beating was so severe that many people would beg to be put out of their misery.

“Oppressed and afflicted” describes the single greatest display of human injustice in all history. Yet amazingly, it is also the greatest display of God’s justice in all history:

Romans 3:25–26 ESV

25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In other words: God would rather slaughter his own beloved Son than allow guilty sinners like us into heaven unatoned for! There has never been a greater display of God’s justice in all history, nor of humanity’s injustice.

Illustration: During lambing season in the Middle East, shepherds still recall how lambs behave when led to sacrifice. Unlike goats or older sheep, lambs often stay calm — even silent — as they’re led away. They trust the shepherd completely.

Connection: When Jesus was arrested, mocked, and beaten, He did not retaliate or protest. He trusted His Father completely, knowing the cross was not the end but the means of salvation.

Application: True strength is not loud defiance but quiet surrender to the will of God.

Isaiah 53:10–12 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because 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.

3. God’s Wisdom to Crush His Son Brings Intercession for the Transgressors

Cross Reveals the World We Have and the God We Have

Author Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boy's funeral into a huge protest march, but the doctor chose another means of protest.

At the funeral, the father displayed his son's body as he had found it in the jail—naked, scarred from electric shocks and cigarette burns, and beatings. All the villagers filed past the corpse, which lay not in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display.

Isn't that what God did at Calvary? … The cross that held Jesus' body, naked and marked with scars, exposed all the violence and injustice of this world. At once, the cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have: a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love.

Scripture teaches us that the love God the Father has for his only begotten Son is so fierce and powerful that the blazing of the sun cannot touch it for intensity. The best explanation of this is Jesus’s own attitude toward the cross.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

In Isaiah 53:10, the delight of the Father is the same as the Joy of the Son, not the cross itself, but the glory it would win for God and the Salvation it would win for the multitudes, more than anyone can count from all the nations of the earth. 

The difference between this guilt offering and the ones made before, is that this guilt offering will accomplish His God given mission not only in His death, but in His life beyond death.

vs. 11 the reference to His knowledge means that He will literally cause many to become righteous. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever’.

The ‘wise’ are those who ‘know their God’. This is not mere academic knowledge, but personal, intimate knowledge.32 And those who know God in this way have a profound influence on others.

Why is this one of the most profound Mysteries in Scripture?

Paul speaks of the same mystery of the cross in 1 Corinthians 2:7–8 “7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

1) It Reveals the Depth of God’s Love and Justice

At the cross, perfect love and perfect justice meet.

Humanity’s sin demanded judgment — God’s holiness could not simply overlook it (Romans 3:25–26).

Yet His love longed to forgive. The only way both could be satisfied was for the Father to offer His Son as the substitute.

The mystery: God the Judge willingly bore His own judgment so that His enemies could be forgiven.

2) It Shatters our Human Sense of Fairness

From a human perspective:

The innocent should not suffer for the guilty.

The righteous should not die for the unrighteous.

Yet that’s exactly what God ordained:

“The righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

The gospel offends our sense of fairness but reveals the scandalous wisdom of grace. It’s not fair — it’s mercy. It’s not logical — it’s love that goes beyond logic.

The mystery: The very thing we would never plan — God’s humiliation and suffering — becomes the only way to redeem the world.

3) It reverses the worlds understanding of power

We equate power with domination. God reveals power through self-giving love. The cross looked like defeat — but it was the moment of greatest triumph.

Evil thought it had won.

Satan thought he had destroyed God’s plan.

But through suffering, God crushed sin, death, and hell forever.

The mystery: The Almighty conquers not by force, but by being crushed — and thereby crushes the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).

4) It Reveals the depth of our sin and the greatness of His grace

If redemption required the crushing of the Son of God, then:

Our sin must be far more serious than we realize.

God’s grace must be far greater than we can imagine.

The cross exposes both realities at once — the horror of sin and the height of mercy.

The mystery: The more we understand the cross, the more we fall silent in worship — not because we can explain it, but because we are overwhelmed by it.

The gospel reveals that humans are more sinful and flawed than they realize, but also more loved and accepted by God than they can imagine - Timothy Keller

Romans 11:33 ESV

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

CONCLUSION

God will make a way where there seems to be no way! He works in ways we can not see or comprehend.

But there is still one more image of the Servant for us to relish before the Song is complete. It is in verse 12. The Servant will return from his mission like a warrior laden with spoil.

His weakness will turn to strength, his dishonor into honor, his defeat into victory. The one who was despised and rejected will take the highest place, the place of a conqueror.

The section ends where it began, exalting Jesus Christ. God assigns to Jesus the elect from the whole earth as the “spoil” he has plundered from his enemy. And those saved souls will spend eternity bowing their knees before Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father.

Christ’s intercession flows from His unchanging compassion:

He knows our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15).

He prays for our perseverance (Luke 22:31–32).

He pleads for our unity (John 17:20–23).

He advocates for our forgiveness (Hebrews 9:24).

His ministry didn’t end with “It is finished.” It continues in heaven as He keeps bringing us before the Father in perfect love.

We should find eternal security in these few verses as well, for God made a plan for our salvation before the foundation of the world and predicted it clearly through Isaiah. Jesus achieved it two thousand years ago. And Jesus is at the right hand of God, interceding for us until we are at last with him in heaven.