for me, for YOU, for US ( Isaiah 53:1 -12)

So this is a lot to read, even though it's only 12 verses. This is a powerful text that directly and completely points to Jesus Christ. Since it is long there are a few sentences that I'd really really like to focus all our attention on. Here they are in the order they appear in the reading:

1. he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
2. He was despised and rejected by others;
   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
3. 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.
4. All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have all turned to our own way,
5. and the Lord has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.
6. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
   yet he did not open his mouth;
7. By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
8. They made his grave with the wicked
   and his tomb with the rich,
9. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
   When you make his life an offering for sin,
10. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

Alright I picked the 10 most powerful phrases to ME. These may not be the most powerful ones for you, but when I look over this list, it certainly stirs something in my heart. I will quickly identify why each one means something special to me.

1. It was just a few weeks ago that we celebrated the birth of Christ, and we remembered how humble his beginnings were. He was born in a stable. He was surrounded by animals; by the smells, sounds, and sights that go along with those animals. He was bedded in a manger, in other words a trough, a crude method of holding animal feed. Tell me where in these dirty and lowly surroundings would we find majesty? What in these appearances would cause us to desire to be with Jesus Christ?!

2. Jesus is God, but also fully human. He knew what it was to stub his toe, to hit his head on a low hanging object, to get the common cold, to have a sore throat and runny nose. God knows intimately what it is to be human because God chose to take on our flesh, with all it's infirmities. Christ was despised and rejected by the "righteous" ones, like the pharisees, the religious leaders, the learned men of Israel. These were the ones who would eventually bring Christ to the cross. And let's not forget even at his birth, Jesus was despised by King Herod who was so full of hate, he slaughtered innocent newborns and toddlers.

3. He not only DIED for our sins, for our failures, for our mistakes, but he SUFFERED for them as well. Before he was crucified, he was flogged, beaten and mocked. He was bruised and broken before being nailed to a tree. I am reminded that my only way to be whole again, to be reunited with my heavenly father is through Christ my brother.

4. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We wander, he comes and finds us, and then picks us up and brings us back to the fold.

5. The Lord sent his own son to take on human flesh and die for us. To bear our faults and failures, so that we might be reunited with God. This always was, always is, and always will be of God's own design. It's nothing we have done or thought of, it's ALL God!

6. We know that Christ could have, with one word, saved himself from the misery and suffering he endured for our sake and yet he didn't. He could have destroyed the people who tortured, mocked, and ultimately killed him, and yet he didn't; instead he forgave them. We also remember that many times Christ was tempted to save himself, and yet he didn't! When Pilate offered him an out, Christ didn't take it, he remained silent, knowing his life, and our salvation hung in the balance.

7. We remember that in fact Christ was tried. He was on trial before the Sanhedrin and pharisees. He was found guilty. Now in modern times we might call that trial fixed, or rigged but Isaiah also said well, calling the trial a perversion of Justice. After the "trial" he was taken away to be executed by Rome.

8. His place of death, his grave was between two convicted criminals. He hung between two thieves, two wicked men. His place of burial, his tomb was owned by a rich man Joseph of Arimathea, and the tomb would have been near other tombs of the rich.

9. The life of Jesus Christ is an offering to God. It's an offering that we should make, giving our lives, and giving up eternal life, for our sin, but God will not accept it, instead, God accepts the life of his own son, as our offering. This is the only life God will take in order to pay for our own mistakes and sins. Christ died not a peaceful, easy death, but one that physically crushed him. While the actual cause of death by crucifixion is debated, it is certain that the victim's own weight actually crushes them (either their heart fails, or their lungs fail to function) and of course this way of dying is extremely painful.

10. We know the only way to be truly righteous in the sight of God is through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are sanctified (made holy) and redeemed by the death and blood of Jesus. Therefore, all of us who have a relationship with Christ, have been made righteous. That's a great many, many people over the centuries!

So in closing, I look at the words of Isaiah it would seem he was writing about the life, death and resurrection of Christ, after the fact, but instead, Isaiah authored these words hundreds of years before Christ. Clearly these words, these images, come directly from God's mouth to Isaiah's ears. The bible supports itself! God's word is so so so good. Only God could inspire words that are so perfect to me, to YOU and to US!

We pray:
Oh my God. My perfect, loving and amazing God. I come before you a humble, undeserving servant. I thank you for your son, for his life, his death, and his sacrifice for me. Without Christ, without you I am nothing, but because of Christ alone I come before you. I boldly pray that you might speak to me as clearly and concisely as you did to Isaiah. Guide me in your ways oh Lord so that I might be your instrument. In your hands I place myself, and all those that I love. In your righteous son's name I pray. AMEN.