The Servant: Innocent (Isaiah 53:7-9)
In Isaiah’s vision, the Messiah would be attacked, tormented, and sacrificed. Yet like an innocent lamb in the sacrificial ritual, He would go silently through this oppression. He would be slaughtered. This would not be a freedom fighter. He would be a willing sacrifice.
He would be wrongly accused and falsely judged. He would not be dying for anything He had done, but for the sins of others. Those who did all of this to Him would not realize what they were really doing.
All of this, in retrospect, fits Jesus so well. Reading this song today in a world after the cross, it is difficult to not simply see Jesus as the subject. Someone like me, who is a believer, sees it absolutely to be so. I wonder how non-Christians, particularly Jews, read this song today.
Then, Isaiah provides even more details. These stack up in such a way that it is hard to not see Isaiah 53 as a fundamentally Christian text. Isaiah says the Messiah would be executed among wicked men and buried in a rich man’s grave. How is this Messiah not meant to be Jesus?
He would be wrongly accused and falsely judged. He would not be dying for anything He had done, but for the sins of others. Those who did all of this to Him would not realize what they were really doing.
All of this, in retrospect, fits Jesus so well. Reading this song today in a world after the cross, it is difficult to not simply see Jesus as the subject. Someone like me, who is a believer, sees it absolutely to be so. I wonder how non-Christians, particularly Jews, read this song today.
Then, Isaiah provides even more details. These stack up in such a way that it is hard to not see Isaiah 53 as a fundamentally Christian text. Isaiah says the Messiah would be executed among wicked men and buried in a rich man’s grave. How is this Messiah not meant to be Jesus?
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