The Gospel of Isaiah

As humans, we tend to be forgetful. We forget our glasses that could be resting nicely on top of our heads. We forget where we put our car keys when we came shuffling in the door from the long day at work. We forget important dates, times, and events. Forgetting is just a part of life. In fact, it has been so much a part of life that even back in Biblical times, God commanded the Israelites to build an altar of remembrance after they crossed the Jordan. Why did God do this? Joshua 4:6-7 explains that this altar was to be used to be ‘a memorial forever’ to help the Israelites tell the story of God’s faithfulness to their children. In order to remember in current days, we set multiple alarms on our calendars, make little sticky notes to put on our mirrors, ask for reminders, and have emails and texts that help us go back and look at conversations. We desperately need help remembering.

Isaiah 53, although originally written as a prophecy describing the coming suffering, death and victory of the Messiah, has been described by Augustine as ‘not a prophecy, but a Gospel’. In fact, 19th century German scholars said that Isaiah 53 ‘melts the crust of the human heart’. As I have read and meditated on this chapter of Scripture over the last couple of weeks, I have come to the realization that what was a prophecy for the people of old is now a beautiful chapter that helps me remember.

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 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.
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.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 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.
10 Yet it was the will of the 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.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 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.

Jesus, man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, suffered and died not because of any evil he had done, but for the evil others had done. He paid the penalty for the sins of His people, a substitute who died in His peoples’ place. A righteous king, stooped low so we can be beautifully and miraculously saved. I pray we will ever be remembering the costly gift given to us by our Suffering Savior.

‘I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me a sinner, condemned, unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful! And my song shall ever be: how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me!’