Being Good Friday, my mind immediately went to the verses in Isaiah, where the first inkling of the Messiah's suffering is revealed, 700 years prior to His life on earth. It really is an amazing thing to reflect on this day, that God would come and suffer and die for my sins. Here are the verses - Isaiah 53:1-12 NIV:
[1] "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 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.
[4] Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken 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 on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
[6] 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.
[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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
[8] 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.
[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 an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
[11] 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.
[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."
I think Isaiah captures the reality of the common thought in his first statement, "Who has believed our message?" Clearly, many of the teachers of Jesus' time, and prior to his time, just basically ignored these verses in their teaching about the Messiah! They were looking for someone to take over David's earthly Kingdom, looking for someone that would re-establish Israel as one of the dominant nations on the earth! They were NOT looking for someone to come and suffer and die, and have their grave assigned with the wicked! Who would ever believe that was the plan for the Messiah?
I know as times I want the same thing! I want God to show up in awesome power, cleaning the earth of all that stand in His way, convincing all through awesome miracles that He is God! I want the establishment of His Church to be great and glorious! As I reflect today, I am thinking that God's ways are different than my ways, and that Good Friday demonstrates that fact perfectly.
The Good News is absolutely dependent on the reality of Good Friday! God's substitutionary suffering on our behalf, as a free gift, out of Love for us, is the core of our Gospel, and all the glory, power and miracles will not change this fact. He took the low-road, became like us, embraced a life of quietness, and then in humility laid down His life, all that we might be set free from the bondage of sin and death! It was our iniquities that crushed Him, our transgressions that pierced Him, our punishment that fell upon his back and shoulders and nailed Him to the cross!
I can almost imagine Isaiah writing these words, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and afterwards, thinking, "What have I written, these make NO sense!"
Today, when I read these verses, I almost can't believe that Jesus fulfilled them perfectly, yet I know it is true.
As a follower of Christ, I must ask myself, what does Good Friday mean for me and how does it affect my witness as a Christian? Does this revelation of God's willingness to become like us, taking upon Himself our sins and punishment affect how I treat others, how I interact with the world around me? Does this aspect of His saving grace infiltrate my idea of what His Kingdom is like, for the Kingdom is a reflection of the King?
I want to make sure that I am not so caught up in looking for the great and glorious that I miss Jesus in the lowly and humble, like the Pharisees and Sadducees did in Jesus day! Lord, help me to see all of You and embrace all of You, not leaving out the parts I can't understand or that make no sense to me! Help me to embrace Your humility, Your lowliness, Your willingness to lay down Your life for me!
Thank You Lord for Your great Love!
Amen!
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