I would like to say a few things before looking at the next chapter, for I've had someone question the wisdom of my blog. I am writing my personal reflections, and I keep these rooted in my personal testimony of what the Holy Spirit is teaching me, by direct word, through the Bible, and through my sisters and brothers. I approach God's presence and revelation reminding myself that every one of us sees but a small fraction of God; but the main thing is to hear and agree with what He tells us so far, and trust Him in how He makes us His workmanship, and makes our testimony a blessing to others. There is a bracing freedom about the Bible - God delights to be questioned, He wants us to test everything (1 Thess 5:21), and He has made us with a need to sharpen each other (Prov 27:17). He has commissioned me to set others a good example of doing these things, praise be to His Holy Name.
Like I imagine every Christian, I return again and again to Isaiah 53 and am amazed at the perfection of its words about Jesus' Passion. I love the way it is a meditation - we are invited into the very heart of this prophet, listening in on his questions, reflections and then what he hears back from God. So like the rythms of my conversations with the Father, so like David's spiritual dramas so perfectly captured in the poetry of the Psalms. And of course, this, like nearly all of Isaiah, is poetry of unsurpassed quality - I hope that will spur some readers to learn Hebrew! Its savour and sound and brevity beckons me into a different realm of awareness.
I find verse 4 incredibly poignant, as the prophet compassionately sees how we will completely misunderstand what is really happening: "... yet we considered Him stricken by God". Of course we would: just like Job's friends, we would not be able to imagine how such a disgraceful fate could be other than a sign of God's disfavour. We would not be able to conceive that God could leave His Holy Servant in His utter vulnerability to suffer what the worst in men did to Him. But God reveals to Isaiah that it wasn't God, but it was our iniquities, oppression, judgment and transgressions which engulfed Jesus.
And, oh most amazing truth of all, just so shocking for its first hearers: there would be no consequences for us for such a crime. Jesus would absorb everything. It was actually God's loving plan. God would rejoice, and we would emerge, blinking, into perfect freedom and intimacy.
Isaiah 53:10: 'Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand'. Here we see how the Passion arises from the Father's will, but also the Son's. Christ gives himself willingly and freely for us, 'he makes himself an offering for sin'. Truly in the Passion the mystery of the Trinity is most powerfully revealed. How can we ever understand the depth of communion Christ expressed with the words, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42).
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