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.
Stanza 2, found at the beginning of Chapter 53, speaks of Jesus’s early life and ministry.
Lamb of God
Stanza 3
Surely he has borne our infirmities
Isaiah 53:4-6 (NRSV)
and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Healer
Surely he has borne our infirmities, the prophet wrote, and carried our diseases. Matthew quoted Isaiah after describing the time Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, then ministered to everyone who came to Peter’s house afterwards.
When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick.
This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 8:14-17 (NRSV, italics mine)
Jesus was always reaching out in compassion to those who were sick, needy, infirm, even demon-possessed. But because Jesus was so often associated with the fringes of society, He was accused of somehow being “soft” on “sin,” maybe even an ally of Satan himself.
the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Matthew 11:19 (NRSV)
All the crowds were amazed and were saying, “Can this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this man casts out the demons.”
Matthew 12:23-24 (NRSV)
There were many, then, who jeered at Jesus on the day of His crucifixion, and the prophet wrote, “yet -we- accounted -him- stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.”
I imagine Isaiah shaking his head with horrified disbelief.
Here is Messiah, pure, beloved of God, and yet people mistakenly believed He deserved what He got. No, Isaiah wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed.”
Substitute
You and I, each of us, could put our name here: “I, like a sheep, had gone astray; and I turned to my own way …”
It is so easy to do, just keep following that green grass, or that rippling brook, or investigate that interesting bush over yonder (even though I have been warned it is off-limits). There are so many ways to go astray, to wander from the Lord.
תָּעָה | tâʻâh
Yet, we do not do well to minimize what it means to wander from God and God’s good way. Isaiah used this word mindfully. The meaning of the Hebrew verb תָּעָה | tâʻâh includes a sense of vacillation,
- to physically wander away,
- to be mentally and morally deceived and seduced and therefore led into error,
- to become intoxicated.
So, when Isaiah brought in “iniquity” as the end result of a straying sheep, it makes sense. The Good Shepherd knows us and loves us sacrificially. Isaiah explained, “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
עָוֺן | ʻâvôn
The Hebrew word עָוֺן | ʻâvôn, “iniquity,” brings in the sense of
- perversity,
- depravity,
- guilt,
- consequences of transgressions and wrongdoing.
Whether you and I wander as a result of having been deceived (as was Eve) or because we are in rebellion against God (as was Adam), that is iniquity, in the end.
The crushing weight of all we experience in this life, the guilt and consequences of wandering, of iniquity, was laid upon Him. Upon Him was the punishment … Jesus drank the cup of wrath, bore the penalty … that made us whole. You and I can now experience peace, health, and wholeness.
Sinless Sacrifice
Isaiah’s audience was well aware of this concept of sacrifices being made in the place of and on the behalf of the guilty sinner. But an animal cannot actually bear the guilt of sin because it has no conscience. Only a human being can actually understand the guilt of sin, and the wreckage of sin. The effectiveness of those ancient sacrifices rested on what Jesus would be doing in His sacrifice for the entire world, once and for all.
The author of Hebrews goes on to great lengths to explain the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice (if you would like to read more about that, click here). Jesus broke none of God’s holy law, but fulfilled it all, submitting to the whole of the Mosaic Law in the power of God’s Spirit, though He was God the Son (and therefore above the Law). By His iniquity-free humanity, Jesus was qualified to be the perfect sacrifice for our iniquity; the perfect substitute. And by the power of His deity, Jesus was able to rise up from the dead, opening the way to liberty for humankind.
Jesus’s sacrifice was once and for all, fulfilling all the sacrifices that had been made before, then doing away with the old Covenant of Law, (or “covenant of works”), along with its system of sacrifices. Jesus was able to do this by being the “Lamb without blemish” as He is described, “the Lamb of God.”
Substitutionary Atonement
“Substitution” is an important salvation concept in the Bible. We are saved because God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to take our place and absorb the full force of God’s purifying wrath of sin. By a mysterious spiritual reality, we were “in Christ” when Jesus died, so that in a very real way, His death was ours as well.
Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.
Romans 6:3-6 (NRSV)
Salvation is accomplished only through Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on our behalf.
By the same token, Christ is “in us,” so that we are also purified, able to enjoy being fully in God’s presence, and able to draw on the spiritual power of God even now.
For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NRSV)
… it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 (NRSV, emphasis mine)
Sanctification is accomplished through our sacrifice of ourselves to Jesus that we may live through Him.
Peter put it this way:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24-25 (NRSV, italics mine)
