During Lent we will be pausing and sitting down in Isaiah 53 -- one of the most famous messianic passages in the Bible. It was written by Isaiah, a prophet who served during the reigns of five of Judah’s kings about 800 years before the birth of Jesus. Imagine the shock to him as he received these messages from God about a future “Faithful Servant” called the “Leper Messiah” by Jewish scholars and commentators because this Messiah would suffer and die and He alone would cure the leper. What a picture this chapter paints of one who would die, like a lamb, and carry the sins of all people for all time. It is a graphic image.
So, I am inviting you, during the season of Lent to read and reread this chapter. Read it in different translations. Read it slowly. Listen to what Isaiah penned and see what parallels you find with Jesus himself. It was this passage, remember, that Phillip the Evangelist used to convert the Ethiopian Eunuch along the desert road. It was from this passage both Matthew and John, Peter and Paul quoted underlining the fulfillment seen in the life of Jesus.
Are there sins in your life? Is there sickness? Is there hurt? Is there any brokenness? Read this passage and think of what it declares has been done FOR YOU.
Indeed, have you believed?
Then the opening question is answered by your faith as the prophet asked: “Who has believed our report?”
Have you seen the power and saving Grace of the Lord on display in your life? Then, you can answer the prophet’s second question, “And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For clearly the Lord has revealed His power and his faith to you.
This week I was speaking with someone who has discovered hope and Jesus by coming to worship at Westside. He has discovered hope in the community and has felt the presence of the Holy Spirit among us. This man is one who would say recently he has said “yes” to that first question, “He has believed what the prophet has spoken.” And he would answer that “to him has the arm of the Lord been revealed.” He has seen the Lord’s salvation put on display in his life. Powerful stuff was declared by Isaiah -- the person of the Messiah, the work of God put on display to deliver us from sin, from sickness, from pain.
Such a powerful passage is remarkable in all that it declares that can be seen put on display in the life of Jesus.
Ponder this great salvation during Lent this year. Draw close to Jesus. Let Him into your life.
Grace to you all.