Sermon Text: Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Date: April 7, 2023
Event: Good Friday
Isaiah 52:13—53:12 (EHV)
Look, my servant will succeed.
He will rise. He will be lifted up. He will be highly exalted.
14Just as many were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man,
and his form was disfigured more than any other person—
15so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him,
because they will see something they had never been told before,
and they will understand something they had never heard before.
53:1Who has believed our report,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a tender shoot
and like a root from dry ground.
He had no attractiveness and no majesty.
When we saw him, nothing about his appearance made us desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by men,
a man who knew grief,
who was well acquainted with suffering.
Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at,
he was despised,
and we thought nothing of him.
4Surely he was taking up our weaknesses,
and he was carrying our sufferings.
We thought it was because of God
that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
5but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced.
He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6We all have gone astray like sheep.
Each of us has turned to his own way,
but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8He was taken away without a fair trial and without justice,
and of his generation, who even cared?
So, he was cut off from the land of the living.
He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.
9They would have assigned him a grave with the wicked,
but he was given a grave with the rich in his death,
because he had done no violence,
and no deceit was in his mouth.
10Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him
and allow him to suffer.
Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.
He will prolong his days,
and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.
11After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life.
He will provide satisfaction.
Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many,
for he himself carried their guilt.
12Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great,
and with the strong he will share plunder,
because he poured out his life to death,
and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.
He himself carried the sin of many,
and he intercedes for the rebels.
This Is the Lord’s Gracious Plan
It was almost like he was there. Did you have that feeling as we read those verses from Isaiah chapters 52 and 53 earlier in the service? Did it feel like Isaiah was standing at the foot of the cross, watching Jesus suffer and die, and writing it all down? He was despised and rejected by men, a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering. Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at, he was despised, and we thought nothing of him. Surely he was taking up our weaknesses, and he was carrying our sufferings. We thought it was because of God that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced. He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was taken away without a fair trial and without justice, and of his generation, who even cared? So, he was cut off from the land of the living. He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.
Isaiah’s words are vivid and accurate to the scene we hear about in the Gospels. It’s like he was there. Of course, he wasn’t there. Isaiah recorded those words by inspiration roughly 750 years before Jesus died. Separated by three-quarters of a millennium, Isaiah seemed like he was describing what he saw standing in Pilate’s courts and peering from the ground at the Son of God pinned between heaven and earth.
On the one hand, that’s not surprising, is it? I mean, if we truly hold to the teaching of verbal inspiration, that the words of the Bible are God’s perfect words written down by human authors, then of course, if God wanted to describe what was going to happen centuries in the future, he could easily do that.
But it’s not just the vividness of the details or the description of the suffering that stands out. It’s the deeper motivation and causality that Isaiah lays out for us that is more striking, and more important. It’s not just that his verbs like stricken, smitten, afflicted, and pierced can’t help but bring to mind the scourge, the nails, and the spear. But Isaiah’s words are clear as to why this happened. It was because of our rebellion that he was pierced. He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed…. the Lord has charged all our guilt to him…. He was struck because of the rebellion of my people…. Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many, for he himself carried their guilt…. He himself carried the sin of many, and he intercedes for the rebels.
Why are we here tonight? It’s not just to stand slack-jawed at the brutality and injustice of Jesus’ execution. We’re not just here in memory of someone who was killed and shouldn’t have been. No, we are here because we can see in his suffering and death exactly what we deserved. It should have been you, it should have been me, suffering the torment not just of crucifixion but much more so of hell—separation from God—as the true punishment that our rebellion against God deserved.
And yet here we are. We have the audacity to call this horrid day “Good” because we know what Isaiah knew. We know that the Messiah suffers not for his own sin, but for my sins, your sins, the world’s sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
This was the Lord’s gracious plan all along. From the first promise in the Garden of Eden we heard that things were going to go badly for the Savior. Yes, he would crush the serpent’s—Satan’s—head and undo all of his work, but right there we are told that the Savior’s heel would be crushed in the process (Genesis 3:15). And while I would certainly take a crushed heel over a crushed head, it’s still a painful and frustrating wound.
Never was the Savior going to come and painlessly solve our sin. That was impossible. To solve sin, there needed to be death. And in order for all of us to not face eternal death in hell, the eternal Son of God had to face hell in our stead. That’s what happens when darkness swept the land on that first Good Friday. That’s what was happening as Jesus cried out to his Father, only to have his prayer fall on deaf ears. That’s what was completed when Jesus cried out “It is finished!” and gave up his spirit (John 19:30).
The Lord’s gracious plan was that Jesus suffer for our sins so that we won’t have to. He promised through Isaiah, “the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.” That seems not true tonight. As we will hear of Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb, this looks like failure, not success. This looks like defeat, not victory. But Jesus made a promise to those of his day who wanted him to prove his authority through miraculous signs. He said, “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Without the resurrection, Jesus’ death is meaningless. We will gather once again in three days to see just how successful the Lord’s gracious plan was in Jesus’ nail-pierced hands. But for now, let’s simply take him at his word. His work is finished. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for wayward, sinful sheep. Our sin has been paid for. By his wounds we are healed. This is the Lord’s gracious plan. Amen.
