This morning we are going to be focusing on Isaiah 53 - verses 4 to 6.

 

Isaiah began his ministry in the year that King Uzziah died - what was around 740 BC.  Isaiah was around long enough to record the death of Sennacherib in 681 B.C.  Meaning that he was around through the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh - who were kings of Judah.

 

In English what all that means is that Isaiah was serving God in some pretty horrendous and uncertain times.  The kings of Judah - and the people of Judah - were all over the place spiritually.  God’s people are chasing after the world.  Living for themselves.  Basically clueless about God.

 

Israel - the northern kingdom - had been hauled off into exile into Assyria.  Which was God’s judgment on them for their sin.  The southern kingdom - Judah - which should have learned from that and repented - didn’t.  And was about to be hauled off into exile by the Assyrians.  Which was God’s judgment on them.

 

Isaiah was watching all this.  Along with the prophets Micah and Hosea - Isaiah was trying to speak God’s truth into the life and culture of God’s people.  But the louder Isaiah cries the less people seem to listen - the worse things seem to get.  Isaiah was hugely unpopular.

Judgment is coming.  Things do not look good.  There really isn’t any indication that things are going to change - except for the worse.  Sounds kinda familiar.  Doesn’t it?

 

Isaiah was a deeply spiritual man that Jewish tradition says was placed under a tree - by the command of King Manasseh - at the age of 120 - and sawn in two.

 

In the midst of all that - Isaiah is given a series of prophetic visions - messages from God for God’s people.  What we have here in the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah 53 being a part of all that.

 

God - in the midst of really horrendous troubling times - God is pulling back the curtain of what’s going on and showing His people - showing us - giving us a glimpse of what He - God - is doing in history.  What that means for them.  What they - and we - can be focusing on in the midst of all of what’s happening around us.

 

Are we together?

 

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday - followed by Resurrection Sunday.  Holy Week is coming.  It would be so easy to be so caught up in whatever is going on around us and in us - just the stuff of life that we’re all trying to get through - it would be so easy for us to run into next week and be totally unprepared to really process what God has done for us in Jesus.

 

The whole season of Holy Week and all could end up being like a speed bump that we run over doing 70.  Kinda noticing that we ran over something.  “Whoa… what was that?”  But, we’re already down the road.  So, that’s in the past and we’re already moving on with our lives.  Summer is coming. 

 

We have a great opportunity here that we don’t want to miss out on.  Which is why we’re looking at Isaiah 53.  What we want to do is to start putting the breaks on and getting ourselves focused on Jesus and what God has blessed us with in Him.

 

This is a picture of what?  The Last Supper.  Painted by… Leonardo da Vinci.  Extra credit question:  Where is it?  On a wall is a good answer.  Italy.  Even better.  The refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 

 

This morning we shared communion - the Lord’s Supper.  During that meal Jesus pulls back the curtain.  He starts talking about what is way outside the box of what the disciples were focused on.  Jesus - clueing in the clueless about what God is doing - is about to do - in history.

 

In his painting, da Vinci depicts the very moment when Jesus told His disciples, “One of you will betray Me.”  What’s portrayed is the speculation on da Vinci’s part - this is da Vinci’s thoughts - of what the expressions and reactions of the disciples may have been when they heard those words.  “One of you will betray Me.” 

 

This is a copy of da Vinci’s work done about 25 years later by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli.  Along with arrows showing where the different disciples are in the painting.  There’s less deterioration here.  A little easier for us to picture that moment.  Pun intended. 

 

Question:  What would it have been like to be there?  Especially at that  moment.  To watch the events of that night unfold.  To be in the upper room with Jesus.  Hearing Jesus talking about betrayal and His upcoming death. (see Matthew 26:20-30)

 

Around the table are the disciples - a very diverse group of individuals - called together by Jesus - led by Him through 3 years of ministry - welded into an amazingly influential community that would be used by God to nurture the roots of the Church.  But, not yet.

 

Question:  If you’d been there, which disciple would you have been?  Which of the disciples do you identify with the most?

 

Bartholomew - also called Nathanael.  Brought to Jesus by Philip.  Bartholomew when he met Jesus said, “You are the Son of God” - meaning the Messiah.

 

James - the son of Alphaeus - probably a first cousin of Jesus.

 

Andrew - the brother of Peter - a fisherman from Bethsaida.  The first disciple Jesus called - later overshadowed by his brother Peter. 

 

Judas Iscariot - the thief who had been given charge of the treasury - Judas - the betrayer - who kissed Jesus with affection and with the same act betrayed Him to death.

 

Peter - “the rock” - Andrew’s brother.  Impetuous - declares Jesus to be the Christ and then denies that he even knows him.  Latter he becomes the de facto leader of the Apostles.

 

John - brother of James.  Both sons of Zebeddee.  One of Jesus’ inner circle of three.  Referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  Out lived them all.  

 

Thomas -  the pessimist - who encouraged the disciples to go along with Jesus to Jerusalem so they could die with Him.  Thomas who’s known for his doubting.  But declares of Jesus:  “My Lord and my God!”

 

The other James - the brother of John - known as the Sons of Thunder.  Probably because at times he was a tad egotistical - sometimes kind of a hot head.  James wanted to call down fire from heaven to burn out a Samaritan village because they’d rejected Jesus.

 

Philip - who when Jesus said, “Follow Me” Philip did - without hesitation.  Saw in Jesus the fulfillment of Scripture.  Philip brought Bartholomew to Jesus.

 

Matthew - the converted tax collector who introduced his notorious and outcast friends to Jesus.

Thaddaeus - also known as Judas the son of James - probably to put some distance between himself and Judas Iscariot.

 

Simon - the Zealot - the politician who was zealously nationalistic and zealous for Jesus.

 

In humility we might not choose to think of ourselves as a James or John.  How could we be as righteous as they were?  Perhaps we’re a Peter - someone who three times denied Jesus - but still returned to Him - or maybe Thomas who struggles to believe.

 

But in reality - at the core - aren’t most of us closer to Judas?  In the diversity of that group - in the reality of that moment  “One of you will betray me” Every single one of the disciples ponders whether that betrayer might be them.  “Is it I, Lord?”

 

They get it.  Each of us is capable of betraying Jesus.  And each of us has.  None of us should think that we’re so righteous - so without sin - that we could not have betrayed Jesus as Judas did.

 

Can’t we identify with Judas?  The one who has the deepest sin and the greatest need is Judas.  In fact, Judas, in so many ways is the description of that group - and each one of us - following Jesus, yet living in sin, desperately in need of salvation.

 

Then notice on the table are loaves of bread and wine.

 

After Jesus makes His statement about betrayal then Jesus takes the bread saying, “Take, eat; this is My body.” and the cup, saying, “Drink from it - this is my blood of the covenant.” - applying the Passover meal - symbolic of God’s deliverance - applies that symbolism to Himself.

 

We need to see in that order Jesus choosing to offer Himself to those who would betray Him - to be their deliverer.

 

Which is Isaiah 53 - the part of Isaiah’s vision that most intensely focuses on Jesus’ suffering on our behalf - for our betrayal - for our sin - on what God has done for us in Jesus.  God’s reality behind the curtain of what Jesus is sharing at the Last Supper. 

 

Let’s read together verses 4 to 6 and then we’ll go back and do some unpacking. 

 

Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed Him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions;

He was crushed for our iniquities;

upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with His stripes we are healed.

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.

Let’s do some unpacking.

 

In John 9 there’s the account of the man blind from birth.  The disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, the man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  The common assumption of the day being that someone had sinned and that the blindness was God’s judgment.

 

Jesus tells the disciples, “The issue isn’t sin.  He’s blind so that God’s work can be seen in him.”  Jesus goes on to teach about who He - Jesus -  is.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Then Jesus heals the blind man.  (John 9:1-7ff)

 

The point being that even the people closest to Jesus weren’t processing what was really going on.  They were interpreting what they saw based on the culture they were living in - the physical blindness and thinking sin.  Not seeing God at work in Jesus.  Emphasis - Jesus being light and giving sight to the blind. 

 

Griefs - sounds like Peanuts.  “Good grief.”  But there is no good grief.  Grief has to do with sickness - weakness - as a result of sin.  Physical suffering as a consequence of sin.

 

Sorrow is mental - deep down a the core of how we think - anguish as a result of our sin.  A brutal empty hopelessness.

 

Every day we experience physical grief and mental anguish because of our sin.  Because of the sin of those around us.  Sin weighs on us.

Verse 4 says that Jesus has borne our griefs.  He has carried our sorrows.  Literally, He’s taken them off of us and put them on Himself.  Picked up what weighs us down and carries them with Himself.

 

In a sense its a picture of Jesus carrying the cross to Calvary.  The cross made heavy by our griefs and sorrows.  Jesus carrying what burdens us with Him to the place of His death.

 

In the midst of that - verse 4 goes on - we esteemed Him stricken - smitten by God - and afflicted.  Judged by God.  He’s getting what He deserved. 

 

We see the cross - the suffering - the blood and beatings.  Those who crucified Jesus saw a criminal getting His just punishment.  Punishment that God laid on Jesus.  Jesus smitten of God - stricken - afflicted.  Because Jesus was not the Messiah.  He’s the trouble maker - a rebel - who dared to call Himself God.  Jesus the sinner.

 

All that is God’s judgment - God’s condemnation.  Jesus getting what He justly deserves - from God through the hands of the Romans. 

 

But let’s not miss what’s behind the physical - behind the curtain.  We need to see the reality of what God is accomplishing.  Jesus taking our griefs - our sorrows - upon Himself - even to the cross.

 

Verse 5 continues - But - meaning keep focused on what’s really going on - He was wounded for our transgressions… 

Transgressions are when we entertain thoughts and attitudes that are against God’s will.  The little lusts and angers and dialogues we replay in our minds - our doubts and fears and self-focused fantasies.  Focusing on what we think of ourselves - or what we think others think of us. 

Giving all that greater weight in our mind that what God declares about us as His children - forgiven - set free. 

 

Iniquities are when we act out in sin.  Willful acts of disobedience.  What we say and do that’s against God’s will.  The perverted behavior of mankind - our own perverted behavior - on display.

 

Jesus was wounded for our transgressions.  The Hebrew is more graphic.  Literally He was run through.  Think the soldier shoving a spear into Jesus’ body to determine if He really was dead.

 

Jesus was crushed for our iniquities.  “Crushed” has the idea of being crushed to death.  My own sin is heavy enough.  What would it be like to carry the weight of the world’s sin? 

 

“Upon Him was the chastisement” - upon Jesus was the punishment - which is what the wounding and crushing is all about - punishment that God places on Jesus.  Behind the curtain purpose of which is to bring us peace.

 

The Hebrew word for peace is… “Shalom.” 

 

Peace in the world is a very subjective thing - a feeling that comes and goes.  Peace based on circumstances.  Treaties that get made and broken.  Personally we may feel a settledness within.  But unless that settledness is based on what comes from God - even that settledness is going to leave us.

 

“Shalom” is a wholeness that we can’t find in the world - a nearness to God.  Peace with God is an objective reality.  Peace with God describes our no longer being subject to God’s wrath because of our sin.  Peace means that our relationship with God is right - righteous - restored.  We’re no longer separated from God because of our sin.

 

Jesus told a parable about a banker who had two people who owed him money.  One owed five hundred pieces of silver and the other fifty pieces of silver.  Neither of them had any hope of paying the debt.  So the banker  cancelled the debt.  Wouldn’t we like the bank to do that for us?

 

Jesus asked, “Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”  Simon - the Pharisee who’s house he was in - Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”  And Jesus said to him, “You have chosen wisely.”  (Luke 7:41-43)

 

How huge is what God has done for us in Jesus?  The death of our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied our debt of sin - set aside the wrath of God - brought us into a restored relationship with God.  Our standing - our relationship with God - there is nothing between us.  No debts or chastisements waiting to be paid.  We have peace with God.

If we’re trusting in Jesus as our Savior there’s a huge sense of lasting relief that we need to grab on to in the pure objective reality of what God has done for us. 

 

Its like saying to a terminally ill cancer patient:  “You’re cured.”  Or to an inmate on death row:  “You’re pardoned.  You’re free.”  Its hard to process that.  What that means for us.  How we’re tempted to think of ourselves verses how God looks at us.

 

If you’ve placed your trust in Jesus as your Savior slow down and put your own name there in verse 5 instead of the “us.”  Because of Jesus’ wounding and crushing - bearing your punishment - you have peace with God.  Hold onto what that means for you. 

 

Then God speaks on through Isaiah:  “and with His stripes we are healed.”

 

Some versions translate “stripes” as “wounds” or “bruised.”  Which is accurate.  But not graphic enough to capture the meaning in Hebrew.  We need to see the beatings - the scourging with flesh being dug into - torn - blood flowing - the sounds of physical torture - a man in agony.  The perverse brutality that leaves the bruising - the wounds - the stripes.

 

“Healed” - means that we’re broken.  The word has the idea of mending - stitching together - repairing.  Like darning socks.  Using thread to repair the damage that comes with wear and tear.  We’re worn and torn by sin.  And yet God heals us - mends us - restores us to usefulness.

How?  “...with His stripes we are healed.”

 

The way the Hebrew is written - the verb used here - “habar” - has the idea of participation - joining together - an alliance - in His stripes - His wounding.  The word Isaiah uses for “stripes” - “habar” - has the idea of union between the one inflicting pain and one receiving it.

 

Picture two prize fighters entering the boxing ring.  They circle and jab, weave and feint.  Finally, one lands a terrific blow to the head of his opponent.

 

Maybe you’ve seen slow motion footage of just such a blow.  The head is turned - pushed back and to the side.  Eyes are rolled back into his head.  Sweat flys of his head and blood from his mouth.  Where the glove impacts his face his cheeks are smashed inward.  Its a gruesome picture of punishment and pain.  They say that blows like that literally dislodge the brain. 

 

At the point of contact - the glove and the face - there is a union - a joining together - a “habar” between the fighter who strikes the blow and the one who receives it. 

 

Are we together?

 

With Jesus, its like we’re all standing in line - each of us ready to take a swing at Him.  We would have kissed Him in the garden.  We would have been the one mocking - spitting - scourging - pushing the crown of thorns down on His head - at the cross hammering or holding the nails - laughing.

 

The Bible says that, “No one is righteous.... all have sinned....”  (Romans 3:10,23)  None of us is innocent - more spiritual, more lofty, more holy - each of us is guilty. 

 

We are united with Jesus at the place of His wounds because they are caused by each of our sins.  Our betrayal.  Our transgressions.  Our iniquities.

 

And yet - even as we participate in His wounding God offers us healing.  Even as we betray Jesus by our sin in thought and actions - God lays all of that on Jesus.  He bears it.  He carries it.  So that we may be healed - mended - made useful.  God healing of our griefs - our sorrows - physical and mental deliverance - given salvation - and life with God now and forever.

 

“Take, eat; this is my body.  Drink from the cup, this my blood of the covenant.”  Jesus choosing to offer Himself to those who would betray Him.

 

As we trust God for what He offers us in Jesus - as we trust in Jesus as our Savior - God makes peace between us and God heals us.

Verse 6:  All we like sheep have gone astray;  we have turned—every one—to his own way;

 

Sheep can be pretty dense.  Sheep wander.  Get themselves into trouble. 

 

We’re wandering all over the place.  Wandering after whatever it is that we’re wandering after.  Each of us has chosen a path away from God.  We’ve rejected the path through life that God has laid out for us to walk down.  Rejecting God’s path for something that we think is better.   Our own path - the broad and wide way through the really big gate.

 

God says through the prophet Jeremiah:  “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  (Jeremiah 17:9)

 

The definition of insanity is... doing the same thing and expecting different results.

 

We live in denial.  We’re delusional.  Deceived by our own sin.  We know that because we’re always coming up with one more quick-fix solution to repair and heal our lives.  And how’s that working?

 

We think we can fix ourselves and heal ourselves - if we could just figure out the solution - read one more book - go to one more seminar - watch one more Dr. Phil episode.  We think that its just that easy and we can come up with the answer. 

 

We even drag God into this.  Expecting God to be like a vending machine.  Asking God to fix us - putting in the prayer - and expecting an easy fix solution to pop out - so we can go on living our lives our way.  Our version of what we want God to do for us.

 

We want the healing without the surrender of our lives to whatever God wills to do in us and through us.  Then when God doesn’t come through in the way we want Him to come through for us - we get disappointed in God -  and way too often use that as an excuse to go on wandering away from Him.

 

All that is wandering down our own path - our own vision of what we think our lives should be like.

 

If we really think its that easy then we must think that the problem isn’t that big.  Somehow what God speaks through Isaiah doesn’t really apply to us.

 

And yet - verse 6 goes on:  the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  “All” of us have gone astray.  “We” all have turned.  The Lord has laid the iniquity of “us all” on Jesus.

 

The only way to lay hold of the salvation offered to us in Jesus is to admit that we’re sheep that have wandered away.  If we’re to be healed by His stripes then we must look at them and understand that we participate in them.  If we’re willing to admit that the wounds of Jesus were inflicted by us - to come in humility to the table of His broken and bleeding body - then we can come to the place where we’re united in His salvation, His healing, and His resurrection.

 

You might take a moment.  Just you and God.  And agree with Him.  Try speaking this to Him.  “I am a wandering sheep.  His stripes are mine.  Thank you that with His stripes I’m healed.”

 

Taking in what God speaks through Isaiah - what Jesus illustrates for His disciples at the Last Supper - all that is way more than a speed bump on the way to summer.  Isn’t it? 

 

There is a lot here for us to think through.  A whole lot more than we can process in a few minutes on a Sunday morning.  But we have the days ahead and some truths to ponder.  What does all this really mean for us?  For you?  For me?

 

We sometimes say, “Oh look how much Jesus suffered for me.”  Focusing on His physical suffering and thinking about what that would be like for us to suffer like that.  Being grateful that He did all instead of us.  Which is good.  But it almost sounds like if we’d have gone through all that instead of Jesus going through all that then God would consider our punishment taken care of and we’d be good with God.

God gives us the visual - the broken body and the shed blood - the suffering and the crucifixion - death.  We can relate to that.  But we need to be careful that we don’t stop at the visual.  What Isaiah writes - What Jesus illustrated at the Last Supper - what’s going on here is way beyond the physical - even the emotional.  Way beyond anything that we could ever accomplish in and of ourselves.

 

There is a much deeper truth here that we need to lay hold of.

 

Jesus - on the cross - suffering in our place - substituting His life for ours - bearing our griefs - carrying our sorrows - wounded - crushed - in immense pain Jesus utters the words “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?”  Which translated means?  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”  (Mark 15:34)

 

Forsaken means to abandon - to desert.  God cutting Himself off from Jesus.  The fellowship and favor and depth of relationship that Jesus has enjoyed with the Father - from before eternity.  Jesus being cut off from all that as He bears our sins and endures the wrath of God.  Chastisement.  By His choice - offering Himself for us.

 

Which is what the reality behind the visuals of suffering.  The separation from God that is our punishment - what waits for us in Hell and is immeasurably far worse than death by crucifixion.

 

What does that mean?  What does it mean that God has abandoned Jesus - deserted Him - cut Himself off from Jesus?

Don’t we have to agree that we have no clue what that means?  None of us has a clue about how all the dots are connected in all that.  We just don’t know.

 

We sing the words:  “I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.”  There’s significant truth in that.  We have no clue as to the depth of our depravity and unfathomable reality of God’s work on our behalf in Jesus.

 

We would have no clue that God exists if He did not reveal Himself to us.  He chooses to know us.  Chooses that we should know Him.  God chooses that we should have a relationship with Him.

 

Who are we that God would - even before He calls creation into being creation - God thinks of us - plans behind the curtain of history for Jesus to go to the cross for us - wills the forsaking of the Son for the clueless - wound inflicting - sinful - wandering sheep that we are.

 

Ponder this in the days ahead.  We don’t understand or deserve what God offers to us in Jesus.  But He does.

 

Peace - healing - forgiveness - salvation - righteousness come as a gift of God’s grace.  God gives it.  We can only receive it by faith. 

 

Faith in God is not about us trying to figure out solutions to the stuff that drags us down and seeks to rob us of peace.  Faith in God - in the day-to-day moments of our lives - is about trusting that the God who is sovereign over all of life - created it - sustains it - gives purpose and meaning to it - promises it to us for eternity - that God has it all worked out - and offers it all to us in Jesus.

 

We have great opportunity in the days ahead.  May we not waste it.  Choose to slow down.  Choose to take time to meditate on Jesus - on God - on what He’s done for you.

 

Take the time to seek God.  To worship Him.  To read through and meditate on the accounts of Jesus’ ministry.  To pray.  To speak words of praise and gratitude to Him.  To renew your commitment to Him.  To by faith lay out your life before Him. 

 

 

 

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.