Isaiah 53-Why Jesus Came

I’ve been writing about the Psalms for a while, but let’s shift gears. As we get closer to Christmas…108 days!, I want to help us remember why He came and there is no better place for that than Isaiah 53.

Have you ever seen one of those pictures that you are supposed to stare into for a while and then you’ll see another image? I hate those pictures because I can never see what I am supposed to see. Not seeing it doesn’t bother me because I am not convinced there is really anything in there, but what really bothers me is that those of you who can see it can’t believe that I can’t see it. When I get around one of those pictures I feel persecuted…maybe ever discriminated against because I’m not in the “in-crowd” of those who can see the image!

With those pictures I’m on the outside looking in, but when it comes to seeing Jesus for who He is I can understand what those of you who can see the image feel—I see Him for who He is and I just can’t understand why other people can’t see it. As I read the Bible I just don’t understand why men and women can’t see that Jesus is the Beautiful One. I can’t understand why they can’t see that Jesus is God and that He is worthy of my unadulterated worship. It baffles me that anyone would not give it all to follow Him because I have seen Him in His glory and I have felt His love and I have experienced His grace and He is all to me.

The Bible isn’t like the picture at the top…it really isn’t about how I see it or how you see it…there is a focus, a meaning, and it all points to Jesus. As we come to Isaiah 53 we come to the most Gospel centered passage in the Old Testament. This chapter bleeds the Gospel and it bleeds the Grace of God. Every single verse in this chapter with the exception of verse 2 is quoted or referred to by either Jesus or the NT writers. When Jesus walked on the earth there always people who wondered who He was—when He told a woman that her sins were forgiven the Pharisees said, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” When Herod heard of Jesus he said, “John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” When He spoke to a storm and calmed the wind and the waves the disciples asked, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and water, and they obey him?” When He rode into Jerusalem riding the colt the whole city was stirred up saying, “Who is this?” It is a great question—Who is Jesus?

The clear teaching of the New Testament is this…Jesus is God—He is high and lifted up and exalted. He came the first time in the Incarnation, but He is coming back and when He comes back every one will be astonished—there will be many who have not heard about Jesus because no one told them and yet when He comes they will be speechless. At the return of Jesus one thing will be certain—He is God and He is worthy of worship, but as we turn to chapter 53 we are confronted with two questions. The questions are questions, but the implied answer shouts out two facts to us.

First we see the question, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” For those of us who have seen the glory of Jesus and worshiped Him the answer to this question is shocking. This is a statement of shock—not many people believe. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Now make no mistake—the number that Jesus classifies as “few” is a number that John saw in Revelation and said no man could count. There will be many who will join Jesus in the new heaven and on the new earth, but that number is few when compared to the many that reject Him.

Why do they reject Him? Verses 2 and 3 answer that for us by giving us a verbal portrait of Jesus. Let’s run through the portrait and notice several things Isaiah says about Jesus.

First, “For he grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.” “He grew up before Him.” This speaks of the humility of His incarnation. Jesus enjoyed an eternal fellowship with God as the second member of the Godhead. Paul said He was in the very form God—He did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped—it was His—He was God and yet He became a man and as a man He grew up before God. The God of glory stepped out of heaven and entered the womb of a virgin girl and was born. The One who holds the world in His hand became an infant dependent upon His creation to nurse Him and to change His diapers. He grew up before God as a man even though He was totally God.

We will continue to study this incredible chapter, but let me challenge you to ponder the Incarnation…JI Packer said, “It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. ‘The Word became flesh’ (John 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises…”. Why? why did He come and go through that? Isaiah 53 tells us.

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