Handel’s Messiah series resumed

It was for a Purpose

Isaiah 53                                                                                                      March 7, 2004

Intro: During the Advent season we explored the biblical passages Handel used when he composed The Messiah. We also listened to same traditional and modern settings of the Messiah. As we travel through Lent, we will once again turn to the texts of Handel’s masterpiece and grow in appreciation and understanding of God’s great love, sacrifice and compassion.

          Many of you attended a showing of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ this week. The text from which I will be preaching today is central in understanding Jesus’ death on the cross.

          Listen now for the Word of the Lord.

    Who has believed our message

        and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

    [2] He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

        and like a root out of dry ground.

    He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

        nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

    [3] He was despised and rejected by men,

        a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

    Like one from whom men hide their faces

        he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

    [4] Surely he took up our infirmities

        and carried our sorrows,

    yet we considered him stricken by God,

        smitten by him, and afflicted.

    [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions,

        he was crushed for our iniquities;

    the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

        and by his wounds we are healed.

    [6] We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

        each of us has turned to his own way;

    and the LORD has laid on him

        the iniquity of us all.

    [7] He was oppressed and afflicted,

        yet he did not open his mouth;

    he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

        and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

        so he did not open his mouth.

    [8] By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

        And who can speak of his descendants?

    For he was cut off from the land of the living;

        for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

    [9] He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

        and with the rich in his death,

    though he had done no violence,

        nor was any deceit in his mouth.

    [10] Yet it was the LORD'S will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

        and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,

    he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

        and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

    [11] After the suffering of his soul,

        he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

    by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

        and he will bear their iniquities.

    [12] Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

        and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

    because he poured out his life unto death,

        and was numbered with the transgressors.

    For he bore the sin of many,

        and made intercession for the transgressors.

This is the Word of the Lord for the People of God.

CCI: The Suffering Servant reveals to us God’s boundless love.

          This passage, perhaps more clearly than any Old Testament passage, shines light on the nature of biblical prophecy. You see, prophecy is not just about the future, it is proclaiming God’s word in God’s time. It is speaking truth to the people around you. The miracle of prophecy is that it continues to speak to specific situations as God calls his people. This prophecy comes in the midst of a series of songs in later Isaiah known as the Servant Songs. This song of the suffering servant was very important to the Jews of the exile. Here they expressed their belief that what they were going through, their suffering, had value. Though it was more than was deserved, through the suffering of one who was innocent, there was redemption for all.

          In this passage we see the suffering and redemptive work of Jesus. But rather than Isaiah 53 being about Jesus, I believe Jesus’ life is about Isaiah 53. He embodied the suffering servant and showed us how to live. He suffered for others, he accepted violence that he did not deserve, and through his willingness to suffer, he brought redemption to the world.

          But in this passage we also find the suffering of God’s people in exile, an exile that purified the people. Never again as a nation did they return to worshiping idols. Their suffering in the Exile purified their longing to serve One God only. Their suffering was for a purpose. And that was the message of Isaiah 53. Suffering and sorrow is not pointless.

          In verse 6 we read, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him, the iniquity of us all. We have all heard that passage, in fact, with a chorus, Handel gives almost 5 minutes to the first half of this verse. Like sheep we have gone astray. Rich Scott, from Wheaton, IL, writes: What are the characteristics of sheep that remind the Lord of you and me? What is he really saying when he refers to us in that way? Well, shepherds and ranchers tell us that these animals are virtually defenseless against predators, not very resourceful, inclined to follow one another into danger, and they are absolutely dependent on their human masters for safety. Thus, when Isaiah wrote, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray," he was referring to our tendency to move as an unthinking herd and away from the watchful care of the Shepherd.

          He continues: I observed this herd instinct a few years ago in a documentary on television. It was filmed in a packing house where sheep were being slaughtered for the meat market. Huddled in pens outside were hundreds of nervous animals. They seemed to sense danger in their unfamiliar surroundings. Then a gate was opened that led up a ramp and though a door to the right. In order to get the sheep to walk up that ramp, the handlers used what is known as a "Judas goat." This is a goat that has been trained to lead the sheep into the slaughterhouse. The goat did his job very efficiently. He confidently walked to the bottom of the ramp and looked back. Then he took a few more steps and stopped again. The sheep looked at each other skittishly and then began moving toward the ramp. Eventually, they followed the confident goat to the top, where he went through a little gate to the left, but they were forced to turn to the right and went to their deaths.”

          And Isaiah said, “All of us, like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his own way.” We have such a tendency to follow the crowd. Even when we sense danger, we will still follow the crowd, even into danger. Last weekend as we walked through West Dallas, every group we passed, younger or older, looked like a group of clones. They dressed the same, they gestured the same, and they talked the same and they were heading in the same direction.

          The scriptures warn us of the dangers of sin. When we go our own way, we are looking for trouble. Paul wrote, “the wages of sin is death.” At times that death is immediate. Sometimes our sin causes death. Sometimes it is the slow death of relationships that are torn apart by deceit and betrayal. At times it is the agonizing death that comes in the loss of freedom because of addiction. Compassion dies as greed grows in our lives. Marriages die when adultery is born. The dangers are clear, yet the lure of the crowd, call of the herd is so tantalizing.

          Yet Isaiah tells us that God has laid on his servant, our sins. His servant was crushed because of our disobedience, he was beaten because of our transgressions. Mel Gibson, as he was filming the crucifixion scene for The Passion. . . insisted upon being the one who held the hammer and nails that pinned Jesus to the cross. In that act, he testified to his own guilt and sin, the sin for which Jesus was wounded, the sin for which Jesus was crushed. For each of us hold within ourselves a capacity for brutality and sadistic violence.

          The contrast to our propensity for violence and hatred, is the servant’s response to that hatred. Isaiah wrote, “as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” In the face of the beating, through the trial, during the crucifixion, Jesus remained silent. He refused to defend himself, he refused to give his tormentors the pleasure of his cry. He did not deserve it, yet he bore it. Jesus’ life was about Isaiah 53 in a way that brings tears to my eyes. In His death, the message of love was sounded. In his death, Jesus declared forgiveness. In his death, Jesus offered himself. In his death, Jesus comforted those who were sorrowing. Jesus showed us the way the servant of God is called to live.

          And there is power in the suffering servant. In 1920, Terence MacSwiney, then Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton Prison, London, on day 74 of a hunger strike. When he was inaugurated as Lord he said, "It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will conquer." And that is the most amazing part of this passage. The suffering servant shows us the power of weakness. In verse 12 we read, “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

          In the first of the Chronicles of Narnia, C S Lewis tells the story of a group of children who are drawn into a strange world that is ruled by a wicked queen. The rightful ruler is a great lion named Aslan. As the story unfolds, one of the children betray Aslan and the others. The queen captures the traitor and makes plans to kill him on the stone table of execution. When challenged she calls forth the Deep Magic and declares, “every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and for every treachery I have a right to a kill.”

          Aslan agrees with her and offers himself in place of the child. That night, Aslan is killed by the queen and her demonic hoard. And then, as dawn is breaking, Aslan returns to life. The children are shocked, and ask, “what does this all mean?” “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness before time, she would have read a deeper incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”

          And so out of suffering the servant brings redemption. As we gather at the Lord’s table this morning, we come as sinners, and we come as servants. If you will look to Jesus, you can receive his words of forgiveness and discover his depth of love. And though all we like sheep have gone astray, the Lord has laid on Him our sins.

Let us pray.