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Heavenly Father, thank you that you show us the glory of Jesus in the Scriptures. And thank you that the Holy Spirit is among us now, to help us to see. Open our eyes to see in a new and deeper way the glory of Jesus – our Lord and our Saviour. In his name we pray, Amen.

What do you make of the Bible – the whole book? It’s large and complex. At first, when you start to read it, it can seem hard to make head or tail of it. It’s a bit like me nowadays without glasses; I can’t make any sense of what I see on the page. I can see lines of text but it’s all just fuzzy, but put on my glasses, and it all comes into sharp focus – even the little footnotes.

When I was a young Christian in my teens (and beginning to read the Bible for myself), I was shown a handful of verses from the Bible to help me understand what the whole Bible was on about. Those verses were a revelation to me – like putting on the right glasses that make fuzzy words come into sharp focus. One of those verses was Isaiah 53.6. It says this:

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.

That, of course, comes from our passage for this evening. We’re back to this mini-series running up to Easter on Isaiah 52-53, and this evening we come to Isaiah 53.4-6. Last week Ian described Isaiah 53 as one of the key chapters of the whole Bible, and these three verses as the heart of the chapter. So they are. So we’re on holy ground this evening. The Suffering Servant is my title. And that’s because this whole section from Isaiah 52.13-53.12 is all about the suffering servant of God. So it starts (Isaiah 52.13) – this is God speaking:

Behold, my servant shall act wisely…

And then the passage goes on to explain in graphic terms what happens to this servant. So Isaiah 53.4 begins:

Surely he has borne our griefs…

So I want us to ask a few questions to help us understand these verses which are so central to the whole Bible: Who is this servant? What has he suffered? Who caused his suffering? Why has he suffered? And finally, what then should we do?

1. WHO IS HE?

Now, of course, we know that the answer to that is Jesus. The truth is we wouldn’t even be reading Isaiah if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s always been clear from a New Testament and Christian perspective that Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus. But I want to do a bit of revision at this point. So let’s step back for a moment and ask, ‘How do we know it’s Jesus?’ Because if you come at this without a Christian perspective, it’s not immediately obvious who it’s about. Take as an example the Ethiopian Eunuch who was riding in his chariot when he met the apostle Philip in the desert (this is in Acts 8). The Ethiopian was reading Isaiah 53. Philip asked him whether he understood it, and the Ethiopian said to Philip (Acts 8.34):

…About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?

So some might ask, is the suffering servant Isaiah himself? Or I remember talking to someone who’d heard an eminent Jewish Biblical scholar arguing that it was the Jewish people collectively who were the suffering servant. The trouble is none of that fits. But we have the definitive answer to who the servant is, and it comes from Jesus himself. So as his crucifixion approached (and he knew it was coming) Jesus said (this is in Luke 22.37):

I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’. For what is written about me has its fulfilment.

That is a direct quotation from Isaiah 53. So Jesus is saying that it’s all about him. And the apostles clearly learned that lesson. So Philip immediately tells the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus beginning with this Scripture (says Acts 8.35). And Peter, and Matthew, and John all make the same identification. John very strikingly says about the prophet (this is John 12.41):

Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory [the glory of Jesus] and spoke of him.

Remember this is 700 years before the coming of Christ. So that’s like speaking today in some detail about someone in the year 2700. The implications of that are colossal. This chapter is astounding. When we begin to take it on board, as I did as a teenager, we find our whole worldview being rebuilt from the ground up, with Jesus, the crucified and risen Son of God, at its heart, revealing God to us. Who is the suffering servant? It is Jesus, the Son of God become flesh.

2. WHAT HAS HE SUFFERED?

Keep that question in mind as I read Isaiah 53.4-5 for us again. What has he suffered?

Surely he has borne our griefsand carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken,smitten by God, and afflicted.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.

What has he suffered? He was stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, chastised, wounded and burdened with grief and sorrow. The Old Testament scholar Alec Motyer spent a good part of his life studying Isaiah. In fact I chose my theological college on the basis that he was the principal – though sadly he left before I got there as a student. If you want to do any serious study of Isaiah, don’t miss his commentaries. Let me give you some of his explanations of what these words mean when we give them their full weight. Stricken is a word that appears 60 times in Leviticus 13-14, in relation to the blow of contracting leprosy, which ate away at the body. Leviticus 13.45-46:

The leprous person who has the disease shall…cry out ‘Unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Pierced usually has the sense of a wound that kills. Crushed means trampled to death, crushing agonies ending in death. Wounds are open, untreated lacerations caused by blows. The gospel accounts of the suffering of Jesus are notably restrained and understated – not least, no doubt, because words are utterly inadequate to describe what Jesus went through. It’s way beyond us to grasp it, but they give an indication. Here are some of the eye-witness descriptions from Matthew’s Gospel, beginning at the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26.37-38):

…[Jesus] began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful and troubled, even to death…”

Then later on (Matthew 27):

They spat in his face and struck him. And some slapped him…They bound him and led him away… having scourged Jesus, [Pilate] delivered him to be crucified…twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head…they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head…And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them…Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

In the words of Isaiah 52.14:

…his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

In this way, the servant suffered.

3. WHO CAUSED HIS SUFFERING?

Some thought he brought his suffering on himself. Certainly those who put him to death did, and those who mocked him as he hung on the cross. They thought they were agents of God. In their eyes, God was punishing Jesus for his own sin. That’s the implication of what Isaiah says in 53.3-4:

He was despised and rejected by men…and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not…we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But it was not his sin that sent the suffering servant to the cross. It was ours. Isaiah 53.5:

But he was pierced for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities...

As Alec Motyer puts it, transgressions refers to:

the wilfulness and rebelliousness of sin, the deliberate flouting of the Lord and his law.

And iniquities…

…reflects the bentness or pervertedness of human nature, the result of the fall and the ever-flowing fount of sin.

As the apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost to the crowds who witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after the resurrection and ascension – most of whom, like us, were nowhere near Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ execution (Acts 2.23):

…this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

It was our transgressions, our iniquities, our sin that nailed him to the cross. Isaiah 53.6:

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.

What does it mean for sheep to go astray? It means they separate themselves from the shepherd. And that’s where danger lies. The good shepherd makes sure they have food and water, and protects them from predators. Apart from him, only death awaits. We’re like lost sheep and in the end we only have ourselves to blame. We say no to God, and no to going his way, and no to staying close to him. And lost sheep die if they’re not rescued. I remember walking in the Yorkshire Dales – much friendlier terrain than the rigours of the Middle Eastern deserts. And yet several times we found the rotting carcasses of dead sheep that had strayed away from the safety of the flock and the farmer.

Who caused the servant’s suffering? I did. You did. We did. We have turned – every one – to his own way. And yet at the same time the servant’s suffering was God’s definite plan. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who caused the servant’s suffering? God did. God caused God to suffer, in the person of his Son. Why? That’s the next question:

4. WHY HAS THE SERVANT SUFFERED?

Look again at what Isaiah has to say. For a start, the servant suffered to carry our sufferings. Isaiah 53.4:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…

Isaiah 53.5:

…and with his wounds we are healed.

Note that Isaiah is clear that we do have griefs and sorrows. But Jesus lifts them off us and shoulders them himself. And we are diseased, but Jesus heals us. When? To some extent now, at least to enable us to keep going and overcome. And fully at the last day, in the new heaven and the new earth, when in the words of Revelation 21.4:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.

We are strayed, lost, dying sheep. Hungry. Thirsty. Torn apart by predators and worn down by fear – with not the slightest hope of ever extricating ourselves. But the Bible says (Matthew 9.36):

When he saw the crowds, [Jesus] had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And his compassion lead him to the cross – because that’s what it took to rescue us. Why did the servant suffer? Isaiah 53 is clear. (Isaiah 53.5-6):

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.All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on himthe iniquity of us all.

He suffered for our sins. He suffered to take our punishment. He suffered to bring us peace. He suffered to heal us. He was like the sacrificial scapegoat described in Leviticus 16.21-22:

And Aaron [the high priest] shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area…

The Lord laid all our sin on Jesus, as if he was the one who had committed it and not us. Jesus substituted himself for us. He paid our debt to God. He served our sentence. He died our death. He sacrificed himself to set us free. His death was an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God wants his lost sheep back in the fold. Jesus came to bring us back. That’s why the servant suffered. Final question:

5. WHAT THEN SHOULD WE DO?

Confess our sin that sent Jesus to the cross. Turn away from that sin. Accept with thankfulness the gift of Christ’s suffering for us. Suffer patiently for him. And anticipate with joy That Day when all suffering, sickness and sin will cease for ever – because of him. There is a prayer of confession in the old Book of Common Prayer. For centuries this was the weekly spiritual diet of vast swathes of the people of this nation. Some of us – me included – were brought up on it. It’s based on Isaiah 53.6. I regret, in fact, that we’re in danger of losing it. But let me recover it for us and end with that prayer now. Let’s pray:

Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders; Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, Restore thou them that are penitent, According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord: And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

Our final song also looks to Isaiah 53:

How deep the Father’s love for us,How vast beyond all measure,That he should give his only SonTo make a wretch his treasure.[How deep the Father’s love for us, Stuart Townend © 1995 Kingsway’s Thankyou Music]

It’s such a joy to sing together in praise of our Lord and Saviour. Let’s do that now. Please stand.