When we think of think of Christ’s death and resurrection, Isaiah chapter 53 often comes to mind, the most quoted Old Testament chapter in the New Testament. In Luke 22, the Lord Jesus makes clear that Isaiah 53 was written of him when, right before his arrest, he says to his disciples, “For I tell you this Scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors,’” quoting Isaiah 53:12.
In Isaiah 53:1, we see two questions: “Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” The prophet Isaiah looks ahead to the time when the gospel will be proclaimed. The questions are raised by Jewish converts who looked at Jesus very differently before they believed compared to after his death, when they came to see the reason for his sufferings.
The arm of the Lord is his power, his strength manifested. Who could have imagined that the power of God would be manifested in the Messiah being humiliated and crucified? In verse 2, Jesus is described as unimpressive. He was “like a root out of dry ground.” In other words, he had no impressive lineage; he came from Nazareth: “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But Jesus was actually the son of Abraham, the son of David, the son of God.
“He had no form or majesty that we should look at him” (verse 2), meaning he did not look like someone impressive that goes with an important position. But Christ is the subject of Psalm 8: “O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” Isaiah 53:2 continues: “he had no beauty that we should desire him,” but he would become “the desire of the nations.”
In verse 3, we see that Jesus was an object of contempt: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.” But Jesus was weeping over the sins of men, and his rejection reflected the grievous, sinful condition of men that causes all the sorrow in the world.
“As one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” They treated him as if he had an odious disease and had nothing to offer them, yet the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ” (2nd Corinthians 4).
In verses 4-5, we see the blind beginning to see: “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.”
The language points us to the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Isaiah 52:14 describes what it means to be smitten by God: “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.” Undoubtedly Jesus was disfigured by the physical beatings, but the immense bodily pain combined with spiritual anguish must have been a staggering sight to onlookers who saw it as just retribution from God, justice meted out to one who claimed to be the Son of God and judge of the earth.
The converted see his suffering in a different light. It becomes clear why the suffering of Jesus was so intense and appalling: he was judged for our transgressions. He was suffering retribution for our iniquities. Sin invokes the divine curse and the power of God’s wrath. Jesus’ sufferings were meant to be penal; he was ransoming people for God by paying the penalty of their sin, making substitutionary atonement for sin; “the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all” (verse 6).
The believers make his sufferings personal: he was crushed for our iniquities; because of his wounds we are healed. In order to understand this, we have to look upon the marred figure of Christ on the cross as looking upon ourselves. He is a picture of what sin has done to us. No other man could ransom our soul from sin, from the judgment of God we see poured out on our Savior.
Verse 6 says, “We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned—every one—to his own way.” The cross teaches us that our own way is the way to death, destruction, and hell itself. The Lord Jesus is still unimpressive to many; he is still not esteemed. But sin and rebellion incur debt, a debt God will make sure of because it is owed to him. Have we believed the report? That is the question this chapter begins with—and the question that we will stand or fall before God with.
