The Sufferings of Jesus (Isa. 53:4-5)

This sermon was preached on 9/9/12

In the previous section of the song, the prophet had described two reasons why Jesus had been rejected by the people. One reason was that he had an ordinary childhood and adolescence and the other reason was that he was marked by sorrows as an adult. Now, in his next section, he describes how those people came to a different conclusion about Jesus. They now realised that his sorrows were connected to their sins, that he had been carrying a heavy load which was their sins. The prophecy here gives us an important perspective on sin – it was their understanding of the nature of their sins that enabled them to see why their sins were such a heavy burden for Jesus. Now they were penitent over their sins. Here we have a description of believers responding to the story of the cross.

The certainty about his sorrows

In verse 3, the people had noticed that Jesus was a man of sorrows. They went on to conclude that he was in such a state because the Lord had judged him for personal sins (v. 4). Their conclusion was the opposite of what was actually the case. The reason why Jesus was sad was because he was carrying their sorrows and grief.

His taking of them was a voluntary act. We have seen some individuals who have had to carry grief because of what others have done. Some parents carry a lifelong burden of sadness because of the behaviour of their children. Yet those parents did not volunteer for such a sad role. They would have preferred that things were different and feel powerless to do anything about the situation. In contrast, Jesus volunteered to carry their sorrows because he knew he could do something about their situation.

His taking of their sorrows was a sympathetic act. By this I mean that he felt personally their plight. He did not carry their sorrows in the way that a refuse collector carries waste. It is true that their sinful lives were filled with waste – there was nothing good in them. But he felt for them in their situations. Recall how he spoke to the daughters of Jerusalem who were wailing as he went to the cross: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.’ It is almost as if said, ‘Your situation is worse than mine.’ But his words express his concern.

The people in the song discovered that their original assessment was totally wrong. They realised that his sadness was evidence of his great concern for them. What proved this to be so was what happened to Him, which they go on to describe in verses 5 and 6.

The cause of his sufferings

In verse 5, the prophet uses two words to describe the sins of the mourners ­– transgressions and iniquities, and their different meanings help us to understand something of the awfulness of sin. Transgression refers to deliberate disobedience of the law of God, and it is important for us to realise this feature of sin. True, sin is a disease that weakens us, it is a power that rules us. Yet if we only focus on these perspectives of sin we may forget our own responsibility for what we have done.

Most of our sins are done consciously, we are aware that they are forbidden by God, yet we still do them. There are two ways by which we know they are forbidden. One is that we have been told what God says in his Word, primarily as they are summarised in the Ten Commandments. The other way is that God has written his law on the heart of each human and they know when they are doing wrong.

Each of us can say, ‘Jesus had to suffer for sins that I deliberately chose to do.’ His sufferings were not only those of a soldier who was hurt rescuing slaves from a dominant power – of course, that is an important way to observe what he did for us. Yet his sufferings were also those of a substitute for a criminal who had freely chosen to disobey the law. When we understand this aspect of his sorrows, then we will have great sorrow as well.

Further, our sins are described as iniquities. If ‘transgression’ points to our sins as acts of rebellion, iniquity informs us that our sins are full of rottenness. Our sins debase us, they make us ugly in the sight of God. We know that some sights are so offensive that they appal us and disgust us, and the emotional effect of observing them is that we weep at their offensiveness. Jesus saw our sins not merely as burdens, but also as ugly burdens. They were the opposite of what he loved to behold – the glory of God and persons living for that glory. This is what he had to do as he carried this awful load of our ugly sins committed on purpose as we rebelled against God’s law. He obeyed that law because, as he carried that load, he was expressing love to his Father and love to his neighbour. But it was an ugly, offensive load.

Isaiah also gives other descriptions of our sins. First, to be in a state of sin is to be without peace. Peace is a word that means well-being. Sin has taken that from us. We don’t have peace within and we don’t have peace without. The dominant features of life since the fall are connected to the absence of peace. What are some of them? One is dissatisfaction with what we have, and this dissatisfaction is there whatever we have. Another is fear that we will lose what we have, whether it is our position, our health, or our possessions. A third mark of the absence of peace is disappointment, and that feature is written over every life. Every tear that has been shed is evidence of the lack of peace, and who can even estimate the number.

Second, Isaiah tells us that sin is a disease from which we need to be cured. This disease is universal, everyone has it. It is hereditary, because we receive it from Adam. It is pervasive, because it affects every aspect of our characters.  It is lethal, because it brings death spiritual, natural, and eternal. Sin blinds the eyes of our souls, it destroys the taste buds and we don’t realise we are eating spiritual poison, it removes the spiritual energy to walk with God, it makes us spiritually dumb so that we will not speak to God, it makes us spiritually deaf so that we will not listen to God. Sinners are gravely ill. What is worse, most sinners are unaware of their disease.

The character of his sufferings

The prophet uses two verbs and two nouns to describe what Jesus went through. The verbs are ‘wounded’ and ‘crushed’ and the nouns are ‘chastisement’ and ‘stripes’. ‘Wounded’ points to him having faced foes who attacked him, ‘crushed’ indicates that the attackers had great power, ‘chastisement’ reveals that he was being punished, and ‘stripes’ shows that his wounds were many.

Who were the opponents who attacked him? We can suggest three – human enemies, demonic enemies, and a divine Opponent. The human antagonists wounded him physically with their blows and emotionally with their derisive taunts; the demonic enemies wounded him with their evil suggestions and temptations. More intensive than them was the onslaught from his heavenly Father as his wrath against sin was directed against the Sinbearer.

These opponents were powerful. The human antagonists included the representatives of the mightiest empire on earth at that time, an empire with soldiers who had conquered the known world and with politicians who ruled with an iron fist. Alongside them were the Jewish religious leaders who influenced the people to turn against Jesus. The demonic foes possessed spiritual power – power so strong that they had the whole human race in the bondage of spiritual blindness. Yet strong as these foes were, even when combined, they did not have the power to crush Jesus. A greater Opponent, one with almighty power, was there against the suffering Saviour; in fact, he was there against his suffering Servant.

The pain Jesus bore from the attacks of human and demonic opponents cannot be classified as punishment. They had no authority to punish the sinless Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate, aware of his Roman power, tried to claim authority over Jesus, but received an answer that showed the truth of the situation: ‘Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin”’ (John 19:11). Similarly the powers of darkness were not employed in punishing Jesus – that would have indicated they had some kind of authority over him, which they never had and could not have. They were permitted to attack him, but they never ruled over Jesus. The only One who had the authority and the capability to inflict chastisement on Jesus was his heavenly Father. He it was who punished his own Son instead of his people.

The illustration of stripes connects to that of chastisement, but it adds the factor that the chastisement was prolonged and that its painful effect increased as it continued. Who can go into this aspect of the sufferings of Jesus? We have some idea of the distress caused by humans and by demonic attack, but which one of us has ever experienced the awful crushing linked to the experience of the wrath of God. We approach the scene and observe the human antagonists and the demonic opponents, but we should be glad that the darkness hides from us the terrible experience of Jesus when he endured the wrath of God.

The consequences of his suffering

Isaiah points to two results of the work on Jesus on Calvary – peace and healing. Probably they are describing the same thing from different angles. When we think of these two blessings, several thoughts come to mind.

First, they are shared by all whose sins were borne by the Messiah. The plural pronouns indicate this aspect. And when we recall the blessings connected to the gospel we see that this is the case. All God’s people have the status of peace with God, of being reconciled to him through faith in Christ. This status is normally called justification, it belongs to all believers, and cannot be changed.

In addition, every Christian can know the peace of God in their lives day by day. This aspect of peace is connected to the fruit of the Spirit and can be present in all kinds of circumstances. Normally, the only barrier to the presence of peace is personal sin. Isaiah mentions elsewhere a reason why peace eludes us: ‘Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea’ (Isa. 48:18). What a marvellous picture of peace. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:165: ‘Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.’ The New Testament letters begin with the pronouncing the blessing of divine peace on readers. Many Christians have testified to the strong sense of peace enjoyed after spending time with the Lord in fellowship. They can also experience deep peace in corporate gatherings, whether organised by a congregation or spontaneous, as the Lord Jesus draws near in blessing.

Further, all Christians will yet experience eternal peace in the new heavens and new earth. Of course, peace is much more that the absence of conflict or anxiety. We have all heard of the Hebrew term shalom which is translated as ‘peace’. Shalom means more than the absence of concern, it includes all that is needed for making life complete and joyful. Heaven will be a shared experience – shared with all of God’s people, and shared with Jesus who purchased peace through his sufferings, conveys peace today through his Spirit, and in doing so gives foretastes of the consummate peace that is yet to be known in glory.

Similarly, spiritual healing has stages. Sinners are healed, in a sense, when they are forgiven their sins and restored to God’s family. This healing is simple and immediate. They are also healed from the effects of sin every time they confess their faults to God and ask for cleansing. The process of sanctification, while never perfect in this life, is a form of healing because those being sanctified are increasingly conformed to the image of Jesus.  Their souls will be healed perfectly from all the effects of sin when they reach heaven at death. Ultimately they will receive full healing when their bodies are raised from death and their full humanity (body and soul) will be transformed into the image of Christ.

The prophet is stressing that these great blessings come to sinners because the Father’s Servant became the sorrowful Sinbearer. He now rejoices to share his purchased blessings with his people, but they must never forget the sad experience he went through for them.