“Christ The Suffering Servant!”

“Christ The Suffering Servant!”(Is.53:1-12).
“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 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. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 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.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, 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. 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.”
Those who framed Jesus and killed him accused him of blasphemy. Jesus’ own family considered him to be a lunatic.
Those who accused him of blasphemy were mostly the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
These were experts on the law of Moses. To be considered experts means they had to be steeped in the word of God. But it is evident that they paid little regard to the texts of scriptures.
The same cannot be said of Jesus. He was versed with scriptures.
Jesus did not claim that he was the Messiah. The song of the Suffering Servant and his future glory is one such text that is prophetic of Jesus as the Messiah.
Either Jesus understood the text so well and acted it out to be its fulfilment, or he was actually who he said he was.
The evidence is glaring to authenticate that beyond any reasonable doubt, he was the Suffering Servant in the text above.
One big lesson gleaned from the story is that we are not born into greatness. When we find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he blesses us. He lifts us up from nobodies into somebodies.
Also, to be what the LORD has designated for us is no smooth sailing! Through Jesus, we eventually become what the LORD says we will become.
Pain and suffering are to be expected before the future glory is revealed.
The Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins; even when he was like a sheep without blemish.
Therefore, when we experience travails for the sake of the gospel, we should count it all joy. This is so because weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Prayer of the day and week: Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for carrying the burden of our sins with pain, shame, disgrace, and death. Amen!
Welcome back to a new working day and week! Have a blessed day and week!
Rev Babila Fochang.
17/03/2025.