The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 53:5-7

“5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth,like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

God told Isaiah that the long yearned for, long awaited Messiah would be rejected and would suffer.  He would be led as a sheep to the slaughter but he would say nothing in his defense.

God told Isaiah that this was all part of his plan for the redemption of humankind.  He would lay all of humankind’s sins on Him,  so that His suffering would be for us all.

The Messiah did not come to this earth for fame, or to be crowned King and live in luxury in a palace.  He came to serve, to be rejected, to suffer, to die, and to rise again.

For us.   For our sins.

For our salvation.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Freedom

Isaiah 61:1-2

“1The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,because the Lord has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn”

That Jewish people waited for the Messiah who would free them from the darkness.  For the captives in Babylon freedom meant a return to their homeland.   For God, freedom meant faith and a transformation of the heart, and the freedom from sin and death that that kind of  faith would give to the world.

The Jews did, eventually, return to Jerusalem, but they did not find spiritual freedom in that return.  Their faith was rooted in laws, regulations, and rules, not in the heart.

Christ came to redeem us, to change our hearts, to transform us…

to release us from the darkness.

“I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.” John 12:46

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)