What Did Jesus Do

Let’s continue studying Isaiah 53 and look at verses 7-9. A while back I sat down for lunch with a friend. The waitress had already served the food and when she came by to ask us if we needed anything we began to talk to her about church. It wasn’t long before she sat down next to me and listened as my friend asked her three questions—1) Who was Jesus?

2) What did He do?

3) Why does that matter?

She had no difficulty answering the first two, but she struggled with the third. Isaiah lived 700+ years before Jesus walked the earth and yet he tells us who Jesus was, he tells us what Jesus did, and he tells us why it matters.

We come to the fourth of a five stanza poem and it is here that Isaiah tells us of the final events of Jesus’ life. It is almost as if Isaiah was standing in the crowd watching Jesus’ trial, watching Jesus’ crucifixion, and watching Jesus’ burial. 750 years before Jesus walked the earth Isaiah perfectly describes the events of Good Friday.

In the first stanza we saw the answer to the first question—who was Jesus—He was God, but today we see what Jesus did. He suffered and He died for our sin. Last week I told you that each verse built upon the previous verse and that is certainly true in verses 6 and 7. In verse 6 he compares us to the sheep that have gone astray, but here he compares Jesus to the lamb that is led to the slaughter. Look at the detail of Isaiah—“He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth…” Once again the prophet uses words of violence. The word oppressed speaks of being under an overwhelming weight—of being crushed and treated harshly. It is the same word used in Exodus for the Egyptian taskmasters…Jesus was physically and spiritually brutalized.

You see the (a) spiritual agony in the Garden where Matthew and Mark tell us, “And going a little farther he fell on his face…” and Luke tells us that he literally was in such agony that he sweated drops of blood as he fell to the ground. You see the spiritual agony at its highest point when He cries out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

You also see (b) the physical agony as he is hit, beaten with rods, scourged, crowned with a crown of thorns, and crucified. Jesus was oppressed beyond our imaginations, but Isaiah said he was also “afflicted.” This takes oppression just a little further—He was punished so severely that he literally was bowed to the ground and not able to get up. Think of Jesus carrying His cross and being so physically weak that He falls to the ground—the Romans made Simon carry His cross for Him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, but how did He respond?

You also see (c) the response of Jesus. “Yet he opened not his mouth.” Think of that! You and I can hardly suffer one single misspoken word without defending ourselves, but Jesus, the Perfect One, suffered and never once defended Himself. The only time Jesus ever spoke in response to the accusations of the religious leaders was to keep mistruth from being spoken. The times that He did speak only infuriated the religious leaders all the more.

Jesus went like a “lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,” and even then He did not open His mouth. Jesus did what was right and yet He suffered like no one has ever suffered. The One who never sinned suffered more than anyone has ever suffered and He did it for us.

That’s what Jesus did! Worship Him!!