Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Doing the Unthinkable”. We look this week at Isaiah 52-53 and the “Silent Suffering Servant”. The quarterly title says so much about us sinners. That what Christ does for us is unthinkable to sinners. So foreign to us self-centered sinners. Yet because we are sinners and because what Christ does is unthinkable, we do not fully understand what the cross shows us. We do not comprehend it all.
For example, we read Isaiah 52- 53 and see Christ… who lived ~2,000 years ago. When we read those chapters much of which is written is in the past tense. It seems to fit with our understanding of what happened those 2,000 years ago. We miss the fact that it was past in Isaiah’s day, too. Isaiah is writing about the past for him, too, even though the events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion are ~700 years in the future for him. So who is Isaiah talking about?
We think that when we see the crucifixion of Christ, we are seeing something unusual… as our quarterly title says, “Unthinkable”. Yet for our God, the cross is not unusual… not unthinkable. The cross is an expression of intense love and sacrifice that is the standard of all heaven. “All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God” (Education pg. 263). So the “Silent Suffering Servant” In Isaiah 52-53, the sufferings of Christ on the cross, show us the heart of God and all heaven and shows us the extent of that love since the very inception of sin. To our God and all heaven, it is not unthinkable… in fact, it is the norm.
It also shows us when He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Always… since the very inception of sin. Not just on the cross ~2,000 years ago. If not, we be all dead men. If the life of God was not constantly supporting our life, we would not exist. But how does he bear our griefs and carry our sorrows? Our griefs and sorrows are in our hearts/ minds. Sin is an attitude, a mind-set. The way we think. Sin is not a commodity that can be traded, moved around or handed to another. Even a “Holy” other. Sin is deep in us… it is us. So for Christ to carry our sin, He must carry it where it is. In us. “But thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities” (Isaiah 43:24). The cross is a literal demonstration of a spiritual fact. God is and has been continually carrying us and our sorrow in us/with us, bearing us and our griefs in us/with us… always. And it His willingness to do this and His love for us, that will melt our heart and lead us into the same heavenly attitude of love for others. Love that will sacrifice even our own eternal security for others… just as it leads our “Heavenly Bearer” even to this day. And so with all His true “servants”.
Also, God does not bear our sorrows and carry our griefs instead of us, but with us. Iniquities “laid upon” Christ is but figurative. Our iniquities cannot be separated from us, because they are us. So for our iniquities to be “laid upon” God, we need to be laid upon Him. This idea conjures-up the picture of a sacrifice being laid-upon the altar and being consumed. And so figuratively are we to be “laid upon” our fiery Lord and allow the fire of love to burn all that is impure out of us. All the “dross”, leaving only the pure “gold” underneath. The “gold” of who we were created to be… our real, true selves created in God’s image of “gold”.
Isaiah 52 and 53 is a symbolic view of God, His character, and what that character has led Him to be and do. It is also symbolic of us, who are made in His image.
1. The cross. Where we die to self with our “sin-bearer”. And then rise to newness of life with Him… a life like His… a life of sacrificial love for others. We are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). His death and life ~2,000 years ago mean nothing if His death and life are not mine today… and every day.
2. The sacrificial altar. Where we voluntarily lay-down our lives and die to sin and self. Are “laid upon” the fire of God’s consuming love that will purge us clean. Fire that intermingles with us so that the fire of love and us, become indistinguishable. We become the very fire of love with our God of fiery love.
Both symbols of who God is and what He is doing for us. And what we are to be and to do. We are to be “little Christs” and love others in this world of sin and pain. Silent suffering servant-sons & servant-daughters, like our silent suffering Servant-Father and King.
With brotherly love,
Jim