Unimaginable Love

“Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people’s rebellion. They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.” (Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭4‬-‭12‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

Have you ever had to drive in heavy fog? I would rather drive in any weather condition other than fog. Normal fog is bad enough, but when the fog gets really thick and heavy it is just so disorienting. It is so hard to tell what is around you that even driving on a familiar road can be quite difficult. In fact, my wife recently experienced this one morning. She left the house and was headed to work. As she approached the end of our road, where it intersects with the highway, she almost hit a truck. Apparently someone had trouble and had left their vehicle parked on the side of the road. It was mostly off the road, but not completely and she almost hit it because she couldn’t see it in the fog. 

While driving in fog is really bad, living your life in a constant state of spiritual fogginess is even worse. Many people live their lives oblivious to the ways, words and will of God. They are cruising along life’s highway completely oblivious to the dangers, perils and impending mistakes that are about to wreck their lives. Most are not just oblivious to God’s ways, they’re intentionally avoiding Him. They’ve either decided He doesn’t exist or, if He does exist, is completely irrelevant to and a meaningless annoyance in their lives. But like the truck hidden by the fog, they’re all about to encounter Him in unexpected ways. The real question is whether they’ll crash or not.

This week’s focal passage takes us back into Isaiah’s insight regarding the Man of Sorrows. We closed out last week with “He was despised, and we didn’t value Him.” Those words are what prompted my introduction with the crash analogy. Our world often despises and finds no value in a God who doesn’t bend to their whim and submit to their will. What’s fascinating to me is why would you want a God who knows and understands so much more than you do to bend to your will and submit to your desires? And that’s really the focus of Isaiah’s vision of the Suffering Servant. 

God knows what we want but, thankfully, provides what we truly need – “Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.” We needed someone to bear our sin sickness and to carry away our pains, but we look at Him and assume He must have deserved what He got. There’s a very stark contrast being given in those words and you may have missed them. We deserve God’s wrath, but He didn’t. He bore God’s wrath for us – our sickness and pain –  yet, we view Him as deserving of the pain. We don’t see ourselves as deserving of the pain of death but we see Him as someone who obviously died because He was rejected by God and deserving of that horrible death.

I think it is important to note that Isaiah is using classic Hebrew poetic language here, as he often does. The reason I point that out is so you recognize the phrasing in verse 5 is typical of Hebrew poetry. Isaiah states: “But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.” Isaiah states that the Servant was pierced because of our transgressions and He was crushed because of our iniquities. While that statement is pretty straightforward, people often misunderstand the second statement, He was punished so we could know peace and we are healed by His wounds.

The misunderstanding comes from their interpretation of that phrase, “we are healed by His wounds.” Lots of modern preaching tries to attribute those words to the idea that the Servant’s suffering and sacrifice provides us with physical health and healing in our present circumstances. However, the chiastic nature of Hebrew poetry means that this phrase is the same as the previous phrase but stated in reverse order. So, the “healing of our wounds” would match up with His being “pierced because of our transgressions.” And the “punishment for our peace [with God]” would match up with His being “crushed because of our iniquities.”

I know that was a long explanation, but I needed you to understand that the phrase often used to “prove” we are physically healed by His wounds (or stripes) does not support that interpretation. The healing we receive because of Servant’s suffering is the greater healing of our transgressions or sins. Because the Servant has taken our punishment upon Himself we are restored to “peace” with God. We are no longer in conflict with God but are now completely whole and restored to fellowship with Him and each other. That IS the meaning and intent of Biblical “shalom” and the true desire of man’s heart. Why would we seek and desire the temporary healing of our physical suffering when God promises eternal healing and wholeness through Christ’s sacrifice? Why settle for a cheap temporary substitute when you can have the real thing for all eternity? Don’t crash in the fog, keep your eyes on the real goal.

Next, we are clearly told that this sin problem is universal. “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD punished Him for the iniquity of us all.” If you’ll recall, Isaiah recognized his own sin chapter 6: “I am a man of unclean lips.” But he also recognized the sin of his fellow Israelites: “and I live among  a people of unclean lips.” Now, he clearly sees the sin of all mankind but, just as clearly, he also sees the Servant taking the iniquity of “us all” upon Himself. If all of us are guilty then we all need a Savior and God’s will has placed our sin punishment upon the His Servant.

But the following verses make it quite clear, God’s will became the Servant’s desire and will. The next two verses (vs. 7-8), tell us that the Servant remained silent before those who oppressed and afflicted Him, He was silent like a lamb being led to slaughter or to the shearers. While it could appear from that description that Jesus was just a passive recipient or “lamb/scapegoat” for God’s wrath upon our sin, nothing could be further from the truth. The Gospel stories clearly tell us that Jesus was fully aware of and submissive to God’s will in this matter. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

“Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬-‭11‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

Jesus was not a passive recipient of God’s wrath upon man’s sin. He was a willing and active partner in the fulfillment of God’s will for our redemption. Scripture is clear, His life was not taken from Him but He willingly laid it down and offered it up to God on our behalf. “This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.” (John‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

Some will say that the death of the Servant is never clearly stated, but Isaiah makes it clear here. “He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck down because of my people’s rebellion. They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.” This is why I titled this message, Unimaginable Love. It is simply hard for us to grasp the fact that God came and took on human flesh, lived a sinless life and then died a horrible and painful death to achieve our redemption. God demands blood to atone for our sin, then He gave His own life and supplied His own blood to fulfill that demand. That’s almost beyond human comprehension. 

That is real love. It isn’t this watered down, cheap version of love that we generally toss around. God’s love is often questioned because it doesn’t match up with our expectations. But our expectations are not lofty enough, not big enough, nor do they go far enough. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭HCSB‬‬) God’s not willing to settle for a cheap imitation version of love for man. His love goes to the very heart of the problem and settles it, once and for all. 

When my children were young, they had a very childish view of what real love was about. They thought true parental love was expressed by my wife and I giving them what they wanted. But most parents have reached a level of maturity that helps them recognize that what a child wants is not always the best way of expressing love to them. Oh, we give them gifts and things they don’t really need but we know that’s not real love. Real love is often best expressed in not giving them what they wanted – forcing them to hold your hand to cross a street or traverse a parking lot, going to the doctor when they’re sick and making them take “icky” medicine or get “owee” shots, or letting them enjoy one cookie instead of the sixteen they wanted.

This is expressed in Isaiah’s final thoughts of this beautiful Servant Song: “…by His hand, the LORD’s pleasure will be accomplished. He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as a spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.” God doesn’t give us what we want but what we need. He doesn’t quiet our whining voices and tearful cries with a cheap, sweet substitute. He gives us the only thing that can meet the demands of our hurting souls and anguished hearts – He gives us Himself as the one to bear our burden of sin.

In the midst of the anguish of the cross, Jesus clearly saw that God was achieving His will through Jesus’ obedience. You see, it wasn’t nails that held Jesus to that cross but it was His love for you and me and His absolute desire to be obedient to the Father’s will. There’s no joy in the suffering of the cross. He endured the cross for the joy that lay before Him – the joy of the pleased Father, an empty tomb and a victorious and gloriously enthroned Servant – Jesus (see Heb. 12:2). 

Maybe you need to go back and reread that last paragraph. We are so accustomed to immediate gratification in our culture that we struggle to embrace any delay in it. Jesus was willing to endure the suffering of the cross and obedience to God’s difficult and painful will because He saw beyond it to the results and the glory that lay on the other side of it. In Isaiah, he describes this same thing by the Servant seeing “out of His anguish” the fulfillment of God’s will and the resulting glory. That glory includes “I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil.” Many will come to trust the Servant’s redemptive and sacrificial actions on their behalf.

Jesus did what He did because of His unimaginable love for us. He endured the cross, despised the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf (see Rom. 8:34, Heb. 7:25, 9:24, 1 Jn. 2:1). That’s right, Jesus is sitting beside God speaking to Him about us and for us. As a rebel, there’s no better place to be than on His mind and in His prayers. Catch those final words of the Servant’s Song: “He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.”

Jesus knew what it was like to be living in obedience to God’s will but to be viewed as rebelling against God. You and I are called to live our lives in obedience to God’s will even when that means we are viewed by our society as rebelling against God’s will. Don’t give up! Look beyond your present struggle and see the joy that God promises to those who believe and trust Him. Have that same attitude that Jesus had, to be an obedient servant while taking up His cross and walking in obedience to the cross. He calls you and I to live that same way, in the reality of His unimaginable love…

“Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke‬ ‭9‬:‭23‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)