The Fourth Servant Song describes the Man of Sorrows in five stanzas.
Stanza 1, found at the end of Chapter 52, introduces the summary of Jesus’s exaltation.
The rest of this final servant song is found in Chapter 53, describing the life and ministry of Jesus, His death and burial, and His resurrection and exaltation. The innocent Servant dying in the place of the guilty supplies the theme that ties the chapter together. Not everything can be explained about the cross. There is a deep mystery here, that God the Son should, even could, die. But this much we can understand: Jesus took the place of guilty sinners and paid the price for our salvation.
Man of Sorrows
Stanza 2,
Who has believed what we have heard?
Isaiah 53:1-3 (NRSV)
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Who Will Believe?
Isaiah starts off by asking: Who believes all this? To whom has God’s “arm,” God’s power, been revealed? Both the apostle John and the apostle Paul quoted this verse when they were explaining how it could be that those of Jewish faith could hear the gospel, see the powerful miracles Jesus performed, and still be so conflicted that some did not believe Him.
John
Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Lord, who has believed our message,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him.
John 12:37-41 (NRSV, emphases mine)
Paul
But not all have obeyed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”
Romans 10:16 (NRSV, italics mine)
Jesus Himself said His generation would come under an even greater judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah for rejecting Him.
A Human Being
The Servant is God, and yet He becomes human and grows up in the ordinary way of a boy to a man. He grew up like a tender shoot, a studious child who learned from His Father. Israel was a spiritually dry place, but Jesus grew up spiritually rich, He sprung up in a dry land, but He was rooted in God’s word. Luke described the young boy Jesus as growing and becoming strong, filled with wisdom, that the favor of God was upon Him.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.
Luke 2:40 (NRSV)
Even though He did not look like much, as Isaiah describes here, He increased in wisdom and in stature as a teenager, as Luke went on to say.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.
Luke 2:52 (NRSV)
Despised and Rejected
Yet, Isaiah continues, in spite of what must have been a winsome nature,
He was despised and rejected by others;
Isaiah 53:3 (NRSV, italics mine)
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
During His life, Jesus knew what it was to be hated and scorned, to feel others’ contempt, to be rebuffed and repudiated. People who are not attractive to others know what that is like. Especially children know what it is like to be shunned and dismissed by their peers, to feel the insults and tear-downs that make others laugh, but their target, the rejejcted child, crumple inside.
Jesus knows, too. He was, according to Isaiah, that person.
Though divine, He is also fully human, and as a child growing up to adulthood, He was subject to physical pain, emotional pain, needing sleep, food, shelter, companionship. Even though He never sinned, He still endured temptation and every other part of real life, just like every other person.
he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.
Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
… For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:15 (NRSV, italics mine)
Acquainted With Grief
He was a man of sorrows, who grieved, who cried over the sting of death when His friend Lazarus died.
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep.
John 11:33-35 (NRSV, italics mine)
He found Himself often sobbing as He prayed.
Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries.
Hebrews 5:7 (NRSV)
He wept over the people of Jerusalem, longing to gather them to Himself.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Matthew 23:37-38 (NRSV)
On the night he was arrested, Luke recorded Jesus prayed in such agony the tiny capillaries all around his face burst from his deep distress.
In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Luke 22:44 (NRSV)
Jesus knew what it was to be slandered, called the devil, be deserted by His closest friends, be falsely accused. He was familiar with grief and suffering because of His great love for people. He chose to enter into our lives because He loves us.
Jesus Christ bore all the grief and all the sorrow caused by sin
The Daughters of Jerusalem (Les filles de Jérusalem) | By James Tissot – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007, Public Domain
Is it not easier to confide in someone who knows what you and I are going through? Does that person not feel safe, sympathetic, empathetic? There is no need to try to convince that person what it is like to carry such heavy burdens of heartache, despair, soul weariness, grief, and agony. Someone who has already experienced what you and I are now experiencing – whatever it is – knows, really knows, what it is like.
The Man of Sorrows can offer the deepest comfort, the strongest help, the most compassionate understanding in our own sorrows and distress. He really does know what it is like to be in our shoes.
Some heartaches feel so complicated and sometimes so shame-worthy, we have not confided in anyone, not even God. We can get it into our heads that God is too pure to hear of such things.
But not the Man of Sorrow, God the Son. You and I can entrust even these awful things which have been kept in the dark, poisoning our souls, to Jesus. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light because He puts His shoulder next to ours and carries it with us.
Then, as you and I receive Christ’s comfort, we think of others we could bring this same comfort to. Who do you know is dealing with feeling rejected, sad, grief stricken, despised?
