The glory of the suffering servant

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, crucified for our sins, risen from the dead, and ascended to rule at your right hand. Help us to see more of his glory. Speak to us, we pray, by your Spirit through your written word. Open our eyes to see, and hearts to response with faith. We pray in the name of our Saviour Jesus, Amen.

We’re on the final stretch of our journey through Isaiah 52-53 in the run up to Easter. This evening we’re taking a close look at the final part of chapter 53 – Isah 53.7-12. You can find this on page 614 in the Bibles. It will be useful if you can have that open in front of you. My title is ‘The Glory of the Suffering Servant’.

Last week we looked at Isaiah 53.4-6 – the heart of this chapter. But those extraordinary verses cannot be properly understood without what comes next in Isaiah 53.7-12. Indeed, the truth is that we ourselves would not be here this evening without what comes next. That will become clear as we go through these verses. What we have here is further prophetic teaching about the suffering (what we now know to be the crucifixion) of the suffering servant, Jesus, the Son of God made flesh. Last week we got to 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 himthe iniquity of us all.

The death of Jesus was an atoning sacrifice for our sins to bring us (strayed and lost sheep that we are) back to God our heavenly Father. Isaiah 53.7-12 I think of as like a tree; a crucifixion tree. I have trees on my mind at the moment. Vivienne and I recently moved, and we now have a garden. We decided that what it needed was a Victoria plum tree right in the middle. Do you know them? They produce fabulous, juicy, prolific, flavour-full fruit. The other day we planted one. It’s going to be amazing. And this passage made me think of it because our new tree has certain characteristics, and it has roots, and in due time it will have fruit. So does the crucifixion here. So I have three headings to help us get to grips with these verses. First, the character of the crucifixion. Secondly, the roots of the crucifixion. And thirdly, the fruit of the crucifixion.

1. THE CHARACTER OF THE CRUCIFIXION

This is Isaiah 53.7-9. Here they are:

He [the servant of God – who we know to be Jesus] was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for this generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Our new plum tree has certain characteristics. For one thing, it is self-pollinating (it doesn’t need to be pollinating from other nearby plum trees). That’s good, because there aren’t any. For another thing, it has a St Julien rootstock. Plum trees are sold grafted onto a rootstock. Our St Julien rootstock is just right for producing the medium sized tree that we want. The crucifixion tree has certain characteristics too, that you can see in these verses. Let me mention six:

i). There is the silence of Jesus under suffering. Isaiah 53.7 again:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

It’s worth noting that there are two kinds of sheep in Isaiah 53. There are the straying lost sheep of Isaiah 53.6 – probably bleating noisily, though we only have ourselves to blame. Then there is the slaughtered sheep – Jesus, lamb of God. The apostle Peter, who saw him go to his death, later wrote (this is in 1 Peter 2.23):

When [Christ] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten…

What a contrast that is the noisy victim culture that we’re a part of. We regard it as desperately damaging for a victim to keep quiet. Jesus did not open his mouth.

ii). Note that Jesus’ generation did not realise what was happening as they crucified the Lord of Glory, and they didn’t realise their responsibility for it. (Isaiah 53.8):

…as for this generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And what was the response of Jesus as he hung there dying? Luke 23.34:

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

That didn’t mean they weren’t guilty. They needed forgiveness. Rather, it emphasised their spiritual deadness, and blindness to who it was they were killing.

iii). Jesus was buried with the wicked. Isaiah 53.9:

And they made his grave with the wicked…

We honour our soldiers who die for their country with neat well-tended graves in quiet cemeteries. Go and see all the World War I graves in the West Jesmond cemetery up the road. Jesus died outside the city wall, surrounded by the refuse of human life, between two criminals. And yet:

iv). At the same time he was buried with a rich man. (Isaiah 53.9 again):

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death…

Even that detail has its fulfilment in Jesus. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. Who did it belong to? Matthew 27.57:

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph … And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.

v). Jesus was executed despite the fact that he was utterly innocent and sinless. (The last part of Isaiah 53.9):

…he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Hebrews 4.15 says Jesus is:

…one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In every deed, every word, and every thought he was without sin. And yet we killed him. Those five characteristics give us a picture of the character – (the rootstock, if you like) of the crucifixion. It’s clear from Isaiah 53. It’s clearly and remarkably fulfilled in the death of Jesus. So that’s the character of the crucifixion. And that brings me to my next main heading:

2. THE ROOT OF THE CRUCIFIXION

We can see both the root and the fruit of the crucifixion intermingled in Isaiah 53.10-12. I want to separate them out. First, let me read that section complete. Here it is – from Isaiah 53.10. See if you can begin to identify both the root and the fruit of the crucifixion here:

Yet it was the will of Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

If you were here last week, you’ll see that these verses recap and restate what we saw about the nature and the purpose of the crucifixion in Isaiah 53.4-6. That’s what I’m calling its root. When we planted our new plum tree, we had to tease out the root ball and separate the individual roots so they could spread and grow into their new soil. Let me tease out and separate what’s said about the root of the crucifixion in these verses. So from Isaiah 53.10 again, and on down:

…it was the will of the Lord to crush [the servant]; he has put him to grief;…[the servant’s] soul makes an offering for guilt…

And Isaiah speaks of the anguish of [the servant’s] soul and that he shall bear their iniquities and [the servant] poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;…he bore the sin of many…

He was numbered with the transgressors. That was the phrase that Jesus chose to quote from here. It’s a kind of reverse virtue signalling. Not, “I’m one of the good people in this situation” but “I’m identifying myself with the sinners. I’m one of them, and so will accept the due punishment.”
All of these phrases here make up such a clear statement of what the theologians call ‘penal substitutionary atonement’. That is, Jesus willingly laid down his life as our representative and substitute, taking our punishment, undergoing the just judgement of the wrath of God, and dying our death, so that our guilt might be wiped away and we might live. And what a price he paid out of love for us. He poured out his crushed, grieving, anguished soul to death. His physical suffering is unspeakably terrible. Piled on top of that is his spiritual suffering, which is beyond any imagining. And all of it, of course, ends in his death. That is his amazing grace. And what are the results of this suffering and death? That brings me to my third heading. So:

3. THE FRUIT OF THE CRUCIFIXION

Let me run through Isaiah 53.10-12 again, this time separating out what the Lord through Isaiah says will be the outcome of the crucifixion – what will flow from it. Or to put it another way, what the fruit of the crucifixion will be. So, from Isaiah 53.10:

…he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand…he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many righteous…Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong…[he] makes intercession for the transgressors.

Our plum tree does not yet have any fruit. We’ve only just planted it. It’s only a sapling. And in any case, it grows over the summer and ripens in the autumn. Maybe we’ll get a handful of plums in September, but I’m looking forward to a prolific crop in due time. I do know what such a crop can be like because when I was a boy, we had a mature Victoria plum tree in the middle of our garden. Each autumn it would be laden with delicious, juicy fruit. The fruit of the crucifixion is prolific. And there are seven aspects of that fruit that I’d like to pick out from this prophecy:

i). The servant will see his offspring. He will have spiritual children. We’ll come back to that in a moment, but don’t miss the implication of the fact that he’ll see them. If he’s going to see them, he must be alive. After his death. So the resurrection is in view here. The suffering, executed servant of God is raised from the dead to live and see the fruit of his death.

ii). The servant will prolong his days. For how long? From a New Testament perspective, it’s for all eternity.

iii). The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Jesus taught us to pray, Your kingdom come, your will be done. The fruit of the crucifixion will be the doing of God’s will. God’s plans and purposes will come to fruition. God’s kingdom will prosper under the rule of King Jesus.

v). He will make many righteous, through his sin-bearing on their behalf. And that’s exactly the fruit that’s spelled out in the New Testament. So for instance 1 Peter 2.24:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree [there’s that crucifixion tree again], that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

So he will make many righteous. And many is a mighty big number. Look around you. All of us here who are already believers may not think of ourselves as plums – but we are most certainly the fruit of the crucifixion.

vi). He will share the spoils of victory. Jesus is the victorious, conquering King. In the end, all things will be given to him, and he will share his kingdom with his children. Then finally:

vii). He will make intercession for the transgressors. That too has a direct New Testament fulfilment. So Hebrews 7.25 says:

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So through this astonishing prophetic vision in Isaiah 53, we can see this crucifixion tree. We can see its character and its roots and its astounding, prolific fruit through history and across the world. What then should we do in response? Certainly we should believe and trust in the Lord Jesus and be baptised. That’s what the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 did when Philip helped him see the crucified and risen Jesus in Isaiah 53. So that’s a word for you if you’ve not yet believed and trusted and been baptised. It’s time you did. And then we should be ready to suffer unjustly but patiently for doing good in the service of the servant Jesus. That’s the lesson that the apostle Peter draws directly from the example of Jesus’s silent suffering. 1 Peter 2.21:

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

And there’s one other thing that Isaiah himself tells us to do in prophetic terms, right after this song about the servant. It’s there in Isaiah 54.2-3. And it’s a call to the people of God – that’s us – to prepare for and work for the promised growth of the church. In the light of the root and the fruit of the crucifixion tree, this is what he says, in prophetic terms:

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.

Or as William Carey, the pioneer of the missionary movement, put it over 200 years ago:

Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.

That’s what we here must do. That’s the very best way to give the glory due to the suffering, crucified, risen and ruling Servant of God. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, the wonder of your gift to us of your beloved Son is beyond words. Thank you for your amazing love for us. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you laid down your life for our sins, and set us free. Lord, we long to see to see more and more of the fruit of your atoning sacrifice. Use us, we pray, to extend your kingdom and grow your church. Do great things in and through us. And teach us by your power and in your strength to do great things for you, our Lord and Saviour, Amen.