Jesus: Suffering Servant

Intro

Many of you who have followed sports, particularly baseball, might remember when it was rumored that baseball legend Pete Rose had been betting on baseball. You may also recall that, after a time of denying those rumors, he finally admitted that the rumors were actually true. In 2004 ABC News reported that Pete Rose said: “People have to understand I wish this would have never happened. But I can’t change it, it’s happened. And sitting here in my position, you’re just looking for a second chance.”[1] Now, we should be careful not to dismiss what Pete Rose said. We should be careful not to think, “Well, those are the words of a guilty man. He just wants to avoid the consequences of what he did.” We should be careful not to think that, because you and I are just like Pete Rose. Of course he wanted to avoid the consequences of what he had done, and so do you and I. Think back to a time in your life when you really messed up big time. Did you not want a second chance yourself? Did you not, in fact, think that you deserved a second chance? When Pete Rose said those words, he was giving voice to something that lies deep within your heart and mine – and that is the longing for forgiveness. You see, we know we’re guilty. For example, when we’re confronted with our own shortcomings, when someone brings our own guilt to our attention, what’s the first thing we do? What is our natural reaction? We shift blame. We know we can’t bear our own guilt, so we want others to bear it for us.[2] That tactic is as old as the Garden of Eden – When God confronted Adam, he blamed Eve for what she had done; and when God turned to Eve, Eve blamed the serpent for what he had done. She said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Now here’s what we have to understand. We wouldn’t try to shift the blame from ourselves if we didn’t know deep down that we are guilty and, moreover, that we cannot bear that guilt on our own, and, further, that we cannot make that guilt go away. What are we supposed to do about this? This was expressed in Shakespeare’s famous drama entitled Macbeth. In that drama, Lady Macbeth is complicit in a murder, and later comes to regret it. She cries out, “Out, damned spot! [referring to the stain of her guilt] Out, I say! Here’s the smell of blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” She knows the guilt is there, and that it’s there to stay, and that she can do nothing about it. But it torments her. Her husband, Macbeth calls a doctor and asks the doctor if there is nothing he can do to alleviate her guilt. He asks, “Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart?” And the doctor replies, “Therein the patient must minister to himself.” Now that’s old English. Translation would go something like this: “Can’t you do something to alleviate my wife’s guilt?” “No, I’m sorry; when it comes to guilt, it’s every man for himself.”

Is that true? Is our only hope some “sweet oblivious antidote” to merely make the guilty feelings go away? Is our only option in dealing with our guilt to “minister to ourselves”, as the doctor said? To medicate it away through work or pleasure or relationships or achievement or money or fun or other such things?[3] What are we to do about our guilt? Because you see, the problem is not just that we feel guilty. The problem is not even only that we are guilty – the problem is more than that. It is that we are guilty before a holy God – a God whose wrath is justly and rightly provoked by our sin, a God whose wrath must somehow be expressed in order for Him to be true to Himself. So an even deeper question than “What are we to do about our guilt?” Is “What is God going to do about our guilt?” The question we have to ask is not just “What can I do to make my guilt feelings go away?” We should go deeper and ask, “Is there anything God can do to make it right?” God’s love compels Him to rescue us somehow, but His Holiness demands that He not rescue us in such a way that merely sweeps sin under the rug. How can a holy God possibly love rebellious infidels, rebels, like us? This is the question that Isaiah is going to answer for us this morning. By the way, Isaiah 53 is perhaps quoted in the NT more often than any other OT passage. In fact, eight of the 12 verses in Isaiah 53 are directly taken up and applied to Jesus in the NT.[4] Notice with me four things this passage tells us about this Servant of the Lord, four things He has done for us. First, He endured rejection for us.

#1: The suffering servant endured rejection for us

There is a great tragedy in these verses, but it’s not what we might think. The tragedy of verses 1-3 is not so much that Jesus was rejected, or that Jesus was poor, or disliked, or a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. No, those things were His glory. In Jesus, the glory of God was hidden beneath layers of sorrow, humility, and suffering. No, the tragedy of these verses is that when people looked at Jesus, they did not see this divine glory. Where do we see that in the text?

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 53

1 Who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

And like a root out of parched ground;

He has no stately form or majesty

That we should look upon Him,

Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

3 He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Verse three says that “we esteemed Him not.” The Christian Standard Bible translation says “we did not value Him.” The German reformer Martin Luther said about this passage that they “estimated Him at nothing.”[1] They saw Him and could not possibly believe that such a lowly, humble, sorrowful, suffering servant could be their Messiah. They looked on Him outwardly, the way we judge people, and rejected Him. That’s what Isaiah means when he says in verse 1, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” He’s lamenting the fact that so many within Israel have rejected this message. Sound familiar? It was a message that was incredible, unbelievable to virtually everyone, even the Israelites! – that the Messiah, the Son of God, would live in rejection and suffering and disgrace! It’s not just in 2021 that people reject the message of the cross. Jesus was rejected then and now because, while God evaluates a person on what is internal, we, unfortunately, evaluate people externally.

The truth is that we think very poorly of people who are not outwardly impressive, don’t we? We judge people by their appearance, their credentials, and their achievements. Jesus had none of these things. App. So, don’t read this passage and think to yourselves, “If I had been there, I wouldn’t have rejected Him. I would have stood by Him. I would have loved Him.” The famous painter Rembrandt created a work of art called “The Raising of the Cross”. In that portrayal of Jesus crucified, Rembrandt paints himself into the picture among the people who are crucifying Jesus.[2] They rejected Him, and you and I would have done the same thing if we were present. One author hit the nail on the head when he said, “Our Lord just wasn’t special in ways that count with us.”[3] That’s what verse 2 means when it says, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” So don’t think you would have been any different. Don’t think, “If I were there, I would have love Him, I would have cherished them.” And, something else perhaps needs to be said here: Jesus doesn’t want your pity. Don’t say in your heart, “Poor Jesus, having to suffer all this, innocently, for sinners on their behalf.” Jesus is not to be pitied; He is to be worshiped! Jesus didn’t give His life for us that we might have compassion on Him. We are the ones to be pitied. Jesus gave His life for us because He pitied us, and He died for us out of compassion for us. Listen to me, church:Jesus doesn’t need your pity; He demands your allegiance. Why? As we’re going to see, after Jesus’ death He was raised, He was taken up into heaven, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father where He rules over everything for the good of His church. App. But during Jesus’ earthly life, He experienced rejection. Do you know what rejection is like? Some of you do. Some of you know what it’s like to be shunned by others. Some of you know the pain of being despised. Are you like Jesus in that men see you and turn their faces away from you? Do you feel like even your family doesn’t understand you? If this is you, take heart and be encouraged, because Jesus has walked through the same thing. And He walks daily with you through the rejection you face. Pour your heart out to Him! Tell Him how bad it hurts to be despised and rejected! He is your Elder Brother and your Friend! He can relate to what you face; He is your Great High Priest, who sympathizes with your weaknesses. You are never alone, and when everyone around you rejects you, or despises you, or turns their faces from you, there is One walking with you who not only loves you but likes you for you, just as you are, and He will never reject you.

In the book of Isaiah, God has made great and glorious promises to His people – promises of salvation, restoration, peace, well-being, and forgiveness. The problem, however, in Isaiah’s mind is: How can a just and holy God give such amazing promises to a sinful people and still be a just and holy God? In the second half of the book of Isaiah, we see a person whose name is “the Servant of the Lord.” It’s the Messiah, Jesus. And there are four passages in Isaiah about this Servant. What we’re looking at this morning is the fourth and final of these passages about the Servant. And what this passage is going to teach us is that this Servant of the Lord, this Messiah who is Himself fully God, He is going to come and take our sin upon Himself, bear its just penalty, and pave the way for our forgiveness. That will be how a holy God can forgive and love sinners Jesus endured rejection for us. Secondly, the Servant made atonement for us.

#2: The suffering servant made atonement for us

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

In 1990, Decision magazine published a story by a mother and a freelance writer named Elaine Rotondo. The story goes like this:

i. “Our third little girl completed our family, a special blessing. As I held her in my arms, I marveled at how God works his purpose in our lives. But driving home from the supermarket one afternoon, I found myself thinking about two other children from my past. Those two I had never fussed over. In fact, I had tried to forget them entirely. Before now I had not even called them children. I had called them abortions.

ii. “When I became a Christian, I understood that abortion was a sin, and I had asked God to forgive me. But I had never felt sorry over the loss of those little ones. Pulling my car to the shoulder of the road, I sat for some time, my moist fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. Now I let my thoughts venture into a place they had never gone. ‘How old would they be now?’ I wondered. They probably would have had brown eyes, as their living sisters do.

iii. “I fought off the sickening reality that was rising in my mind. The full impact of what I had done so many years before was finally upon me. ‘They were alive’, I said out loud. ‘They were real children!’ Shame washed over me like a dense, heavy wave. But as the tide of pain rose, I also felt the Lord’s presence. This was too terrible for me to face alone; He would face it with me. God held me up in the moment of that horrible truth: I had taken life from my own children!

iv. “In my heart I cried out to the tiny souls who never had felt their mother’s arms. I had never mourned these children. Now I longed for them. But it was too late. The pain was almost unbearable. I wept for a long time, wishing the very mountains would cover me and hide my guilt. Then I remembered Jesus. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

v. “This was why he had died, to pay the price of sin for me. Looking over the seat, I gazed intently at my three-month-old daughter sleeping soundly in her car seat. She was so fresh and alive! ‘Thank you, Jesus,’ I whispered. ‘You are so good to me.’”[1]

I nearly wept myself as I read that story. It perfectly illustrates Isaiah 53:4-6. How can God forgive a woman who thoughtlessly authorized the murder of her two unborn babies? Surely that is precisely the kind of thing which provokes God’s anger. How can a holy and just God forgive her? How can He forgive us for our equally horrifying rebellion against Him? The answer is Isaiah 53:5, “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.” The idea here is that of substitution. Jesus was our representative, our substitute, standing in our place, bearing our sins, enduring the wrath of God that was due to us, bearing the full brunt of our guilt and shame. Now, there is something really important I need to clarify here. Sometimes this whole idea of substitution is portrayed this way: God didn’t want to forgive us, didn’t want to love us, but Jesus stepped in and stood in our place and by His sacrifice He sort of forced God to love us. In this case God forgives us begrudgingly, because He has to. This way of thinking diminishes God’s love. Charles Spurgeon addressed this error well over 100 years ago when he said in a sermon that “Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving, but he died because God was loving.”[2] John 3:16 says “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” By His death Jesus satisfied God’s holiness and justice and wrath, but it was God’s idea in the first place, He took the initiative, and Jesus willingly, even joyfully, carried it out.

“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.” Notice the language of substitution all through the verse 4: “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.” In verse 4 it says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version (Chapter 5)

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

In other words, Isaiah is saying that Israel would look at its Messiah as He died on the cross and would wrongly assume that He was suffering for His own sins. Not so, says Isaiah. He was suffering for theirs, for ours. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor. 5:21). Christ, the innocent One, willingly treated as though He were guilty. That is how God can forgive our sin. That is how God’s love can have full expression. Our sin, laid on Christ – that we might be set free. App. I would ask you, friends, if you struggle with guilt feelings, but I already know the answer. I know you do. I have yet to talk with many people who don’t struggle with guilt. The question is, are you going to keep trying to carry that load all by yourself? Or will you let Jesus carry it for you? Verse 6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one [no one is exempt] – to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Friends, who can bear the weight of the guilt for that? Verse 6 goes on: “and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” When you refuse to give your guilt to Jesus, here’s what you’re saying to Him: You’re either saying, “Jesus, what you did wasn’t enough to deal with my sin problem” – which is ingratitude. Or you’re saying, “Jesus, no thanks, I can carry this load myself” – which is pride. So either way, if you refuse to trust in Christ for your salvation and give your guilt to Him, you’re actually increasing your guilt, and making the load even harder to bear. Jesus wants to bear this burden for you. It is His great desire. Won’t you let Him?

The suffering servant made atonement for us. Thirdly, the suffering servant lived innocently for us.

#3: The suffering servant lived innocently for us

So Jesus, as Isaiah tells us here in vv. 7-9, has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has lived innocently for us.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open 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

For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,

Yet He was with a rich man in His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Let me ask you a question: Is there anything uglier than sin? I expect you will answer No. The British author C. S. Lewis famously said evil was like a parasite. He said, “The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. Evil is simply good that has been spoiled. That’s why I say there can be good without evil, but not evil with good. You know what the biologists say about a parasite – an creature that lives on another creature. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.”

So if there is nothing uglier than sin, it would make sense if we could say that there is nothing more beautiful than righteousness. And if there is nothing more beautiful than righteousness, then, do you think we could say that nothing is more beautiful than Jesus, because Jesus was sinless. This is the testimony of Scripture from cover to cover. It’s true that Jesus was tempted, but temptation isn’t sin. Jesus never sinned. Jesus Christ is supremely beautiful because He was completely sinless. And He wasn’t sinless simply because He was God. No, Jesus was sinless as a human person as well. So the prophet Isaiah says in verse 9: “He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” We have a hard time imagining the sinlessness of Jesus, don’t we? That’s because you and I don’t know what sinlessness could possibly be like.

Last night, I mowed my lawn. Now, I should clarify what I mean by the word “yard”. We don’t just have a yard. We have yards - plural. We have the front yard, the back yard. We have the lower front yard, and we have the lower back yard. We also have the upper front yard, and we have the lower back yard. In addition to that, we have the lower, lower yard — below the muscadine vines and the peach trees. It takes about four hours to mow all of it, and I suppose that’s not too bad. I’ve got a pretty big mower. I realize that at some point in the history of our property, someone probably mowed it with a push mower or at least with a riding mower that was probably slower and smaller than mine. What you really need is a bush hog.

Now, at the start of the mowing season, Noah and I went to crank it up for the first time. Kind of a big deal, you know? Firing up the mower for the first time? Good father and son time. Anyway, it wouldn’t start. We tried and tried and tried. It wouldn’t turn over. We tried to jump it off with my car. Still wouldn’t turn over. We bought a new battery. Still wouldn’t turn over. Eventually we figured it out - it wasn’t just a battery. It needed to go into the shop.

Now, this was back when the first stimulus checks had gone out back in April and there was no one working. The mechanic was backed up. Two weeks passed before he could even start working on it. And every day that passed, our grass grew higher. Of course, it ended up raining a ton during those two weeks. So the grass grew and higher, and as a man tasked with overseeing the state of our lawn, that was really frustrating to drive out every day and then come home every day and see that. It was an ever-growing and increasing visual reminder of my failure. Accusing me, day and night.

Until one day my dad showed up with his mower. Coming home that day I remember the sense of relief I felt at seeing a nice, short, freshly manicured lawn. If that seems weird to you, you’ve obviously never mowed the grass. Or maybe it is weird. I don’t know.

What I do know is this: my dad did for me what I could not do for myself. We are created to worship and obey God, to live in moment by moment obedience to Him. Adam and Eve plunged us into rebellion, but we have willingly followed in their footsteps. And God’s law, just like the high grass and weeds in my yard, constantly remind us of what we haven’t been able to do. God’s law demands perfection, absolute righteousness, complete holiness. We fall so far beneath that standard so often that many of us have probably lost any awareness that this is our calling. And our failure doesn’t change that calling. He

But consider this – Jesus never had a sinful thought, He never spoke a sinful word, never experienced a sinful motivation, never harbored a sinful desire, and He never committed a sinful act. Remember verse 9: “He had done no violence [never committed a sinful act], and there was no deceit in his mouth [never spoke a sinful word].” Our actual condition is so far from sinlessness that we can hardly fathom what it would be like. Sin corrupts our thoughts, it chooses our words, it colors our motivations, it influences our desires, and it shapes our actions. Can you imagine being the kind of person who never feels pulled and torn between what you know you should do and what you really want to do? That was Jesus’ experience. That doesn’t mean Jesus wasn’t ever really tempted. He was. But it does mean that Jesus’ moral strength was always up to the task.

Yes, Jesus was sinless. And our salvation depended on Jesus being sinless. In the OT, when the Israelites offered a sacrifice, it had to be an animal without blemish or spot or impurity or defect. It had to be perfect. In that, God was teaching the Israelites that their forgiveness could only come through someone dying in their place – and not just anyone, but the sinless Son of God. All the offerings in the OT were pointing forward to Jesus Christ, who offered Himself for our sins, past, present, and future, in a sacrifice that would end all sacrifices. Because He lived innocently for us, He offered Himself as a perfect offering to save us from our sin.

Lastly, the suffering servant was victorious for us.

#4: The suffering servant was victorious for us

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring,

He will prolong His days,

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,

He will see it and be satisfied;

By His knowledge the Righteous One,

My Servant, will justify the many,

As He will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,

And He will divide the booty with the strong;

Because He poured out bHimself to death,

And was numbered with the transgressors;

Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,

And interceded for the transgressors.

Ill. In December 2004, a massive tsunami devastated parts of Asia and killed thousands upon thousands of people. Scientists later said that the earthquake that triggered that tsunami was about as strong as a million atomic bombs.[1] The shockwaves from that earthquake rippled across the ocean, and they triggered that massive tidal wave that killed almost 228,000 people. What a massive display of power – but not equal to the power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Verse 10 talks about Jesus seeing His offspring – the church – created through His sacrificial death on the cross, and then it has an interesting phrase: “He shall prolong his days.” Many Bible experts agree that this is probably a prophecy about the resurrection. Jesus Christ, the Servant, the Righteous One, was victorious for us. He rose from the grave in great power. This is true even though verse 10 mysterious says “It was the will of the Lord to crush him.” The Hebrew literally says, “Yahweh was pleased to crush him.” We’re used to thinking that it was ultimately the Jews and the Romans who conspired together to kill Jesus. But that’s only part of the story. When they did that, God was using that horrific action on their part to bring about His salvation. He was ultimately the one in control. That’s why Isaiah can say “It was the will of the Lord to crush him.” This doesn’t mean that God somehow drew sick pleasure from the death of Jesus. No, it just means that God was pleased with the death of Christ – a death which, by the way, Jesus died willingly and joyfully. God did not force an unwilling Jesus to the cross. No, Jesus went willingly and joyfully. And God accepted that death as the sacrifice for our sins, and is greatly pleased with the outcome. What is the outcome? Look at verse 11: “By his knowledge [that is, his knowledge of suffering for our sin], the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous.” In other words, God is pleased with Jesus’ death because by it God is now able to forgive sinners. Now He is able to, as the Bible says in Romans 4, “justify the ungodly.” Remember how, at the beginning of the sermon, we asked the question, How can a holy God possibly love rebellious sinners like us? How can God love us? Here we find the answer. He was “crushed” for us. On the cross, God took the initiative to satisfy His own holiness and justice, by substituting Himself in our place! Oh, church, how could you and I look at Jesus giving Himself to us on the cross and not want to give our lives to Him? How can you look at the Father, who loved you too much to let you destroy yourself through sin, without being overcome by the sheer mercy of it all? Jesus was victorious for us. He – and we – are enjoying the fruit of His suffering. “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.”I love what one author wrote: “He isn’t suffering anymore. His offering for sin was complete. And right now, today, all over the world, he’s enjoying the satisfaction, the sheer pleasure, of making many ungodly people to be accounted righteous.”[2] So the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 – what does He do for us? He was rejected for us, He made atonement for us, He lived innocently for us, and He was victorious for us.

Conclusion and call for response

Maybe this morning you’ve seen something about the glory of Jesus Christ and His salvation that you’ve never seen before. Did you know it is possible to be a member of a church your whole life, and not ever really have repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus? At my first church, when I would give a gospel presentation each Sunday, one of my deacons said, “You know Dustin, everyone here is saved.” But a pastor cannot make that assumption. So I call each of you this morning to ask yourselves – not, “Did I make a decision or pray a prayer 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago?” but “Am I trusting Jesus now, am I relying on His sacrifice for my salvation now, today?” Maybe this morning the testimony of Charles Simeon would be something you would echo for yourself. He write: “The thought came into my mind, What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an Offering for me, that I may lay my sins on His head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly, I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus.” If you are a Christian, then you already, I hope, know how to find the relief from guilt that you so desperately need. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). How can a holy God do that? How can a just and righteous God show love to undeserving sinners? He can do it because “on Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.” Would you stand with me as we pray?