The Silent Suffering and Death of Christ (Isaiah 53:7-9)
Notes
Transcript
Turn with me to Isaiah 53… (pew Bibles)… Today, as continue to work through deep water of Isaiah 53, I want to draw your attention to verses 7 through 9 as we continue to study this passage that looks forward to the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s here that we feel the power of silence. Their obviously a heaviness to this entire chapter. It’s not the easiest or most comfortable passage to preach or even hear preached, because the chapter ushers us into the immediate presence of the cross. The cross where the innocent Jesus suffered and died for our great lack of innocence, where the just suffered and died for the unjust. Like the kings we considered a few weeks back described in Isaiah 52:15, our natural reaction to the cross and exaltation of Christ is to stand in complete silence, in awe of the One who poured out His blood and life so that we might receive the promise of His abundant and eternal life. You see, Isaiah brings both the horrors of our sin and the glory of God’s love into crisp focus and therefore silence seems to be the only right and fitting response… (stop and say nothing)
Yet there is something very uncomfortable about silence is there not. We live and breathe in a rather loud world. Voices, distractions, television, cell phones, email, social media, radio, youtube, tic toc, countless things scream at us constantly demanding our undivided attention, foolishly convincing us that we must listen, that we must alter our lives to hear their message. And yet the greatest message you could ever consider was made in profound deafening silence. When you read through Isaiah 53, you should be gripped by this silent suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It should make you incredibly uncomfortable and yet at the same time, it should fill you with an overwhelming hope and peace. And that is exactly what we want to discover together this morning…I want to read a little more of the text to help you understand how the silent pieces all come together, so let me read verses 3-11 this morning, and then we will focus our hearts on verses 7-9...
This morning, I simply want you to see three points from three verses. Three things regarding the silent suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ (described in vs. 7-9) and how it should impact our lives…
1) The peaceful demeanor of Christ in His silent suffering and death (v. 7).
Twice in verse 7we read the emphatic phrase, “He did not open His mouth.” From the moment He was arrested in Gethsemane till the time He took His very last breath on the cross, the Lord Jesus spoke very little: only when absolutely necessary. So, for the most part He was completely silent. If you have a red letter Bible, with the words of Christ in red, you will notice as your come to the end of each gospel, the word words begin to disappear as the life of Jesus nears the cross. Notice Isaiah 53 verse 7, in its eternity, reads, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” Notice how he was oppressed in afflicted. The word oppressed in the original Hebrew language, the language it was recorded in, speaks of brutal enslavement. It gives us the image of wayward slave being arrested, taken captive, and being severely abused. Over the last two weeks, we have already considered the severity of this oppression. Back in chapter 52:14, God said that His Servant’s, the Messiah’s, appearance would be marred beyond all recognition of humanity. In other words, this oppression would be so severe that He would no longer appear to be a man. Certainly, He was physically oppressed, but we must not forget that our Savior was also oppressed psychologically and emotionally. From the unjust arrest in the garden, led by one of His own disciples, to the mock trial where He was accused by false witnesses, there is no doubt He was emotionally and psychologically abused by the tragic events. But this prophecy also proclaims that God’s Servant will also be afflicted. This is a repetition of a Hebrew word He already used in verse 4, a word we studied last week. Yet, the passive form of the verb used here in verse 7 specifies that Christ allowed Himself to be afflicted. It could literally be translated as “He humbled Himself.” As it means “to be made low or put down.” That’s exactly what Jesus did to himself, He made himself low, and put Himself down. Perhaps, this was the apostle Paul’s inspiration, when under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He penned the words of Philippians 2. Where He said, “And being found in human form, he (being Christ Jesus) humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Perhaps the greatest expression of His humility, was the fact that “He did not open His mouth.” In spite of the fact that He was oppressed, arrested, abused, beaten, endured a mock trial, sentenced to die, and hung on a cross, through it all, He spoke only when absolutely necessary. You see, sinners, like you and me, we don’t suffer in silence. We grumble, yell, or complain. We voice our frustrations and accuse or attack others in our pain. At our very best, we may cry out for mercy or forgiveness, but silence is not our response. True silence is not an option for the sinner.
But Jesus, being like us in the fact the He was tried and tested in every way we are, remained silent. I love how the prophecy compares Jesus to a sheep, just as we are. Yet when all of mankind is described, we are described as wanderers who turn to their own way. But when Christ is described as a sheep, He is quiet and submissive. You see Christ was sinless. Therefore, even though He was hunted down in the middle of the night, betrayed by His friend Judas, taken into custody, oppressed, and afflicted to unimaginable degrees, Jesus uttered no complaint, nor did He defend His innocence.
The New Testament records these unjust events for us in great detail. In Matthew 26, Jesus stood silently before chief priests, scribes, and elders In Mark 15 and in John 19, he remained quiet as he stood before mighty Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea who interrogated him. From there, Christ was taken to king Herod to be examined. Where again in Luke 23, we read that the Lord uttered not a word as the king questioned Him.
Truly, God spoke through Isaiah to say, “Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth”(v.7b). You see, Jesus knew that He had come to fulfill this prophecy, a moment foretold by God’s prophet some 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Therefore, John the Baptist rightly proclaimed… “Behold, the lamb of God who takes way the sin of the world.” The apostle Paul was equally correct when He wrote 1 Corinthians 5:7, “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” Everything we read in the Old Testament and everything we read about Jesus’ birth, childhood, and ministry in the New Testament leads us to this holy moment, when Jesus will give His life as ransom for many. That was His purpose in life, and now the time had come. But, oh, oh, oh, how there was much He could have said to his accusers. He could have condemned the high priest, the Sanhedrin, and the Pharisees. He could have put Pilate and Herod in their rightful place, He could have embarrassed and shamed them all, but instead God’s Servant, the Messiah, silently submits Himself to the good will of His Father. He does I quietly as He simply yields His own will to His Fathers. Silence in submission is when submission is at its finest. There is no look at Me, there is no desire for self-glory, no it is all silent submission to God’s redemptive plan.
Jesus’ silence, you see, signaled His willingness to die and please the Father. His silence is a radical demonstration of His and His Father’s great love for you and me. For Jesus stood in judgment not for His own sin, but for yours and mine. Listen, when we stand before God in judgment, we can’t utter a word in our own defense. We can’t justify our sin before His holy throne. You see you were created to bear His image and reflect His Holy Character to the world around you. But everyone one of us have failed to bring Him glory that is due His name. Listen to how the apostle Paul explains this truth in Romans 3:10-19… “as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God…” Church family, please understand Jesus’ mouth remained closed in His judgment because He stood condemned in your sin. On your behalf, He stood both peacefully and quietly in your judgment, as He bore your sin as if it was His own, and as He lovingly obeyed His Father’s will.
Such a realty of truth should naturally stir our hearts to respond in great humility and loving obedience as well. The silent and submissive spirit that Christ modeled in His own trial should generate within His followers a similar quiet and obedient spirit that should be revealed in the various trials they face. How about you, my friend? When your world becomes chaotic, when everything goes wrong, do you model a quiet and submissive spirit? Now, obviously in our broken world, there are moments we must speak up for truth and take a stand, but may we do so in a way that reflects this biblical principle. For sometimes the words spoken out of a quiet and submissive spirit are often the most wise and powerful.
I remember growing up in a small town church. And like all churches, there were moments of tension that required long meetings, and as I child I was both bored and sometimes entertained when things got heated. But I will never forget when things often got unsettled, there would often be a hand go up by a man named MR Jefferies. He was a quiet man who loved the Lord and loved the church, He was a true servant of God. And when His hand went up, everyone leaned in to listen and somehow, Mr Jeffries would steer us in a better direction out His quiet and submissive demeanor, and out of his wisdom that was shaped by the time He spent quietly in God’s Word. Listen or homes, our church, your workplace, your school, need a voice and like His, they need a voice and leader who humbly understands His great need of forgiving grace and who quietly submits to the voice of God. You can be such a person. Will you be?
2) The profound reason behind Christ’s silent suffering and death (v. 8).
Throughout Isaiah 53, the prophecy continues to remind us of the reason behind the death of God’s Servant. Verse 5 could not have been clearer… “He was pierced through for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well-being, and scourged for our healing.” And now verse 8 adds, “By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgressions of my people, to whom the strike was due?”
“By oppression and judgement.” Jesus wasn’t just oppressed, He was judged. The word judgment refers to the verdict, which is expressed in the phrase, “He was taken away.” Meaning He was condemned and turned over to executioners to be put to death. This opening line to verse 8 speaks of the entire legal process of events which transpired, from Jesus’ arrest in the garden, to His trial in the praetorium, and to His execution on Calvary.
Pilate had ordered Jesus to be crucified. Now, not everyone in the Roman world could be crucified. Such a death was reserved for the worst of criminals, traitors, and slaves. Jesus, being the Slave or Servant of God will just so happen to die in slavish fashion. His execution is described in verse 8 with the words, “He was cut off from the land of the living…”. This was a Jewish expression that spoke of both murder and execution, for Jesus was indeed like an innocent lamb led to slaughter, murdered, and executed.
Notice, how the prophecy begs a most important question, “Who considered this?” Out of Jesus’ generation, for those who were there, the eyewitnesses, those who sat in judgment, the Pharisees, elders, scribes, or the disciples… Who would conclude, stand up, and shout, this is not right! This isn’t fair! Who would protest the grave injustice that was unfolding? Was there no one there who gave serious thought to who Jesus was, and what He had previously said would occur. Was there no one there, who considered Isaiah 53, and thought, wait a minute, He’s God’s Servant! Again, the silence of this passage becomes haunting, especially when we read the final line of verse 8, “For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due.”
The point here, is again, that the nation of Israel did not realize who Jesus was. They considered Him a nobody, a blasphemer, who got what He deserved. They failed to see it clearly, that Jesus would endure the stroke of God’s judgment on their behalf. Israel, like all of mankind apart from grace, was enslaved and blinded to the reality of the cross by their own sin. The great theologian John Calvin once wisely observed… “The greater part of Mankind is enslaved to error. Walking blindfolded in God’s glorious theatre.” They could not see it, for according to verse 1, the mighty arm of God had not revealed it to them yet. Again, I’ll remind you, that this entire chapter is a song of lament, a song that will be humbly sung by a remnant of Israel who will come to faith in Christ at the end of a time in the future called the Tribulation, which I feel will not be too far off in the future from now. With tears in their eyes, eyes that have just received spiritual sight, they will confess that they failed to consider Christ as the Messiah. Oh, indeed the only way we will ever see things clearly is by the work of the mighty arm of God. To the modern man, it just seems archaic and foolish. It fails to add up that one man could die and satisfy the wrath of a loving God. How can God be both wrathful and loving? How could the shedding of His innocent blood could make our lives clean. Why would we need cleansed from sin, especially when we live good and peaceful lives? Certainly, such questions seem irrational to most people today.
But oh, how blindfolded mankind is in the glorious theatre of our great God! Oh, how prideful we can be to fail to consider the overwhelming weight of our sin. Oh, how foolish we are when we compare ourselves to others instead of looking at our lives through the eyes of Holy God, and through the lens of His Holy Word. For under its light, we all stand guilty, condemned, and completely depraved in sin. Listen… Have you considered these things? Have you given serious thought to the truths of the gospel? Have you considered how your sin is great and how it will be judged by the Holy and Just God? That one day you will stand before Him and must give an account for every sinful choice, action, word, and thought you have ever had. You see there are two appointments that will occur in your life… You will die, and you will stand before God in judgment. Those realities will come to pass, and I pray that you have and that you have placed your faith and hope in Christ, for indeed He is our only hope. For in your judgment, every sin you ever committed must be addressed, nothing will be overlooked, from the biggest sin to the smallest, all of it must must be taken into account. You see, justice will be served according to God’s Holy Word and Character. And every one of us will either stand condemned in our sin that day, or we will stand forgiven because we have put our faith in Christ, who faced the wrath of God on our behalf and died in our sin. Have you placed your hope in Him? Have you considered these things?
But let me just add… this consideration of the gospel, must be done daily. We must remind ourselves of the gospel, moment by moment… Martin Luther once said, “We need to hear the gospel every day, because we forget it every day.” Imagine how our lives and relationships would be transformed if we simply set aside 10 to 20 mins a day to prayerfully consider the truths of the gospel, and placed the eyes of our heart on the cross. What would happen if we meditated daily on the reality that Jesus died for our sin and freed us from the wrath of God. The reality that the power of sin has been completely broken in your life and you have the freedom to choose not to sin. Envision what could happen if we spent time daily reflecting on the silence of Christ and the model which He set for us. Would we not grow in humility, patience, forgiveness, peace, and love? Would our hearts not find rest, satisfaction, and joy? Would it not have a powerful effect on our world, our family, and relationships? As we approach Easter, I want to challenge you to daily to find 10 minutes, 10 minutes of quiet solitude to focus your heart on the gospel, and live in the shadow of the cross, for Jesus died for our sin, so that we might live to be like Him.
3) The prevailing hope discovered in Christ’ silent suffering and death (v. 9).
Verse 9 takes us to the Lord’s burial. It speaks of what occurs to the lifeless body of God’s Servant, after the oppression and affliction. We are told in the first line of the verse, that “His grave as assigned with wicked men.” This is a natural conclusion to the fact that Jesus died in the immediate company of criminals. He was crucified with them, therefore it is logically expected that he would be buried with them or that his remains would be disposed of in the same manner in which they would have been treated.
Now, it is important for us to understand that criminals that were crucified were rarely buried. In fact, the Romans most commonly left the corpses of the crucified on the cross. The purpose was twofold. First, their bodies would be left to rot and feed the wild animals because such an act was the ultimate way to dishonor a person. Such practice was common in the ancient world, in fact, we read about such an act in the Old Testament. When the Philistines killed Saul in his sons in battle, they disgracefully took their bodies and hung them on the walls of the city of Beit Shean, to humiliate and dishonor their lives, their family, and friends.
That would be their first purpose in leaving their bodies on the cross, but secondly, they tended to leave their bodies hanging in public to serve as a deterrent. Most often crucifixions occurred right outside the city gate, right on the edge of a major road leading into the city. The Romans wanted everyone coming into the city to see, smell, hear, and feel a crucifixion. They wanted you to know what would happen to you if you acted out of line in their city. And so the bodies would hang till they rotted and fell off the cross.
Eventually, the bones and remains of the crucified criminals would be gathered and taken to the city dump. In the city of Jerusalem, this dump rested in a valley located on the southeast side of the city. It was called the Valley of Hinnom and was described in the New Testament as the place where the fire never went out and where the worm never died. There, fires continually and endlessly burned away the city’s refuse there. Interestingly, in the Old Testament, this same valley, the Valley of Hinnom, was the place where babies were regularly sacrificed to the Ammonite god Molech and to the Canaanite god Baal. Babies would literally be placed on an altar of fire so that the parents might receive the blessing of an easier life. That valley was the horrible place where the corpses of the crucified criminals were dumped and left to burn and rot. No wonder, Jesus would use that setting in his teachings as a depiction on hell. Three times, in the New Testament, He explained hell with that location. Certainly, such a place was not a fitting resting place for the only Son of God.
Therefore, we read in the second line of verse 9, that an amazing turn of events would occur. Instead of being buried with criminals, He would be with a rich man in His death. That rich man would be named Joseph of Arimathea. We are told in John 19 that he had become a disciple of Jesus, but he lived his faith in secrecy due to his fear of the Jews. But after the death of Christ, Joseph would boldly approach Pilate and ask for the body of Christ, and he along with the help of Nicodemus, another wealthy man who discretely followed the Lord, would go and take Jesus’ body from the cross and lay his lifeless body, in Joesph’s unused tomb. So instead of being buried with the wicked men in the city’s landfill, Jesus would be taken into the company of wealthy men and laid to rest in an elaborate borrowed tomb. This would occur exactly as Isaiah prophesied, again 700 hundred of years beforehand. What a testimony to the authority, trustworthiness, reliability, and inspiration of Scripture! Oh, what a book we have been blessed and entrusted with, certainly only God could be its author. It is truly His Word.
But notice our passage once more, because as amazing as that truth is, we must realize that Jesus wasn’t laid to rest in a nice tomb so that we can marvel over the fact that Scripture is reliable and true. No, Isaiah tells us specifically why Jesus’ body was placed where it was. Look at what he says, “Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” This is the testimony of God, that His Son had no sin of His own, for He had never acted unjustly or committed a sin of any sorts. He was blameless in every way imaginable. The text says he had never done violence, meaning he had never done anything wrong or out of aggression. Furthermore, the text tells us there was no deceit in His mouth. This is just another way of saying that Jesus was completely sinless holy. Remember Matt. 12:34… “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” Listen, our words flow directly from our hearts. From what’s inside. We don’t say evil things because we were provoked to say them. We say evil things because there is evil in our hearts. This is exactly why in Isaiah chapter 6, when the prophet was allowed into the holy presence of God into the heavenly throne room, where the seraphim were calling out to one another “holy, holy, holy!” in that setting Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” In other words, he was crying out in the presence of God, I’m messed up to the core. My heart is not right, and this sin of mine, is revealed most clearly in my words. And the angel then graciously cleansed his tongue with fire. Our tongues can be quite humbling can they not? How often have you regretted saying something? Listen, Jesus never had that experience, because He was sinless.
These last two lines of verse 9, are the profound testimony of God the Father declaring His Son’s holiness. A few weeks back we read back in chapter 52:13 the words of God. He declared, “Behold, My Servant will proper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” I believe what we see here in verse 9 of chapter 53 is very beginning of God exalting His Servant. The humiliation of His Son was over. On the cross, near the very end of His life, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” And indeed, it was. There would be no more humiliation to experience, for the price of our redemption was paid in full. From this moment on, God would honor and exalt His Son, His blameless Servant, who humbled Himself and submitted His life to the will of God the Father.
And church family, in such exaltation we find our wonderful prevailing hope. Because unlike Christ, we all deserve hell. The place of eternal flames, the horrors of our sin, the stench of rotting burning flesh, the unending suffering, that is our just eternal destiny. For we sin, we turn to or own way, we ignore both the law and gospel that God has made known to us in His amazing grace. We curse when we should bless. We condemn when we should uplift. We do nothing when we know what we know what to do. And then we constantly do that which we know not to do. Like sheep we wander further and further away from the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. YET, IN HIS GRACE!!!!! IN HIS GRACE!!! He humbled Himself and lived a blameless on our behalf. He alone submitted perfectly to the Father’s Will. He alone stands in silence and embraces the Father’s will, so that we might live forever in His grace. 2 Corinthians 5:21… “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” You see, on Calvary’s cross the guiltless One became our sin, and the good, loving, and just God unleashed His holy wrath on His own Son. Everything that we deserved He absorbed for us as He hung on the tree. Indeed, He was the lamb of God, the only acceptable sacrifice, who takes away the totality of our sin, so that we might become righteous in Him. Oh, what grace and what love! That God would no longer hold us accountable for our sin and consider us completely righteous. It is as if God on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion looked upon Calvary and saw you hanging on the cross among the wicked, and yet now when He casts His eyes upon you, He sees only Christ, God’s good and faithful Servant, clothed in perfect righteousness. Therefore, we too can be with a rich man in our death. For certainly, when a follower of Christ dies, they will enjoy eternity with those who stored up their treasures in heaven. In other words, they will forever live with those who didn’t live for earthly and temporary gains. Who didn’t live for their own glory. But instead, they will forever reign with those who lived to glorify God in light of eternity. Who gave of themselves, their time, their energy, and their money to please God. That is the rich and exclusive company we can look forward to enjoying in heaven as we gather around His throne and cry out worthy! Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!
Oh, what hope we have because Christ silently suffered and died for us. Yet, it is a hope reserved only for those who repent of their sin and live for Christ. It is a hope for only those who believe and confess the truths embedded in verse 5… “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for or iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” And it’s a the hope of those who serve God and follow the humble and obedient example of God’s Servant. If you are here this morning, and you’ve never experienced such hope, please come seek me out after the service, or go to the welcome desk in the foyer and ask to talk to one of our elders. We would love to share more with you, answer any questions you may have, encourage you, and pray with you before you leave.
Church family, as we bring our service to the close, there is a lot here for us all. The gospel and the profound silent suffering and death of Christ which is so clearly presented in these three verses should humble us, encourage us, call us to greater faith, and instruct us in the way we live. Will you respond this morning to this Scripture in a way that denies yourself, exalts Christ, and brings glory to the Father? Will respond to however the Spirit may lead you?
Pray with Me!