Several times the Gospels mention that Jesus spent some time "beyond the Jordan" (Mark 8:8; 10:1). I recalled from studying the historical geography of Israel that during New Testament times that there was a district called Perea (Greek for "area beyond") along the east bank of the Jordan Valley, but I had never actually visited the area until this trip. I remember seeing it from the west bank of the Jordan (the Israeli side), but never really thinking about its importance for understanding Jesus' ministry in the Gospels. What I hadn't realized was how much more hospitable it is than the barren and desolate stretch of the west bank from Beth Shan to Jericho. The reason is simple enough: it has better soil and water resources. Silt from the highlands of Gilead to the east and springs and perennial streams like the Yarmuk and Jabbok combine to create a very viable living space. I was surprised to learn that the east bank of the Jordan from the sea of Galilee almost all the way to the Dead Sea is heavily populated and produces a wide variety of crops and vegetables.
All of this to say, in Jesus' day Perea was an important center of Jewish life and economy. It was also a major artery for Jewish traffic going from Galilee to Jerusalem. Rather than hazard the direct and shorter route down the water shed route that passed through Samaritan territory, most Jews of the first century crossed over to Perea and traveled along the east bank of the Jordan. When they were opposite Jericho, they re-crossed the Jordan, passed through Jericho and trekked up the ascent to Jerusalem (a climb of about 4,000 feet in some 12 miles!).
Besides the more congenial environment of the east bank, there were social and political factors. Tensions were extremely high between Samaritans and Jews during this period, punctuated by occasional bloody encounters. For this reason, Samaritans and Jews avoided each other if at all possible, as the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman dramatically illustrates: "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" (John 4:9). The Jews of Jesus' day of course couldn't build a separation wall (!), but they could minimize contact. One can't fail to see striking but sad similarities to the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At any rate, the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus in the region of Perea was as productive as the land itself. It was "at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan" (John 1:28) where John carried out his preaching and baptizing ministry. And it was there, from the circle of John's followers, that Jesus called his first disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter and an unnamed individual. Later on we learn that after a particularly difficult encounter with the religious leaders in Jerusalem (John 10:22-39), during the winter Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), Jesus "went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days" (John 10: 40). Here his Jewish listeners responded to his preaching much more favorably: "And in that place many believed in Jesus" (John 10:42). Remains of churches from the Byzantine era in Perea testify to the fact that Christianity did indeed take hold "beyond the Jordan."
This trip also reinforced the importance of the Decapolis in the early spread of the gospel. The Decapolis was a district composed of ten (hence the name) important Hellenistic cities that were semi-autonomous and not under Jewish control as was the case in Galilee, Perea, and Judea. This region was located for the most part south of the Sea of Galilee and east of Perea, covering upper and lower Gilead. As you may recall, the first to evangelize the region was an unlikely candidate: the Geresene demoniac. After Jesus exorcised a "legion" of demons from this poor, tormented man, he begged Jesus to go with him. Instead, Jesus commissioned him to be a missionary: "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you" (Mark 5:19). Not only did he tell his family, Mark tells us he "began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed" (Mark 5:20). Not surprisingly, this area later became an important center of Christianity, as we learn from the church historian Eusebius, and today one may admire the remains of many magnificent basilicas in the Decapolis.
These are just a few of the fresh insights that came to me after visiting the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. I think it important to inform my readers that a new day is dawning in Jordan as regards the gospel. The Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary in Amman, the capital of Jordan, is training young men and women to share the gospel and minister to the spiritual needs of Christians not only in Jordan but in the entire Middle East. Pray for this ministry and ask whether you might contribute financially. Just Google the name of the seminary to find their website. As you might expect, Muslims make up over 90% of the population of Jordan and sharing the gospel is a challenge. But just like the Geresene demoniac, there are a few Jordanian Christians who are telling their families and friends how much the Lord has done for them. Like a mustard seed, the good news is being sown. The Lord of the harvest will do the rest. Have you told anyone today how much the Lord has done for you?
Larry Helyer's Blog
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Jeremiah and Jesus
Another prophet who surely influenced our Lord was Jeremiah of Anathoth. Although Jeremiah was born and lived just a short distance from Jerusalem and Jesus grew up some 70 miles to the north in the small village of Nazareth in the region of Galilee, there are a number of fascinating parallels between these two prophets.
As a jumping off point (recall our previous blog!), it's worth calling to mind that many of Jesus' contemporaries thought he might in fact be Jeremiah come back from the dead. While in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"(Matt 16:13). Their reply is fascinating: "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (Matt 16:14). What was it about Jeremiah and Jesus that caused some to make this identification? I want to offer a couple of responses to this question, especially since I've now begun teaching on the book of Jeremiah in my class at JUC.
Jeremiah and Jesus do share some common characteristics. For example, both prophets were not afraid to take on popular but mistaken views at variance with God's revealed will. In fact, Scripture records a sermon by both prophets that cuts against the grain of cherished belief and incensed the listeners.
In the case of Jeremiah, we have two versions of the same sermon, chapters 7 and 26. Whereas chapter 7 provides the essential content of Jeremiah's famous "Temple Sermon," chapter 26 narrates the outraged response of those who heard it. Jeremiah sounds an urgent alarm: unless there is genuine repentance, the city and its temple are doomed (Jer 7:14-15, 20, 32-34). The people held out hope that just as the LORD had spared Jerusalem in the days of Sennacherib the Assyrian (See Isaiah 36-37), so too the LORD would deter Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. Jeremiah dashes this vain hope by reminding them of what happened in the days of Eli to Shiloh and the Ark of the Covenant (Jer 7:14; cf. 1 Sam 4). This was precisely what the people didn't want to hear! They clung in desperation to any words of hope thrown out by false prophets like life lines tossed to sailors whose ship has sunk. Jeremiah cuts off all such false hopes of deliverance. It takes real chutzpah to do this sort of thing! As you might expect, the initial reaction of the audience was to put him to death: "You must die!" (Jer 26:8). Had not the LORD provided a few friends in high places, Jeremiah would almost certainly have perished that day (Jer 26:17, 24). This episode strikes a similar note to Jesus' sermon in his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4) that I mentioned in my last blog.
But even more strikingly, Jesus also challenged the religious leadership of his day in the very place where Jeremiah had done so centuries before, only this time in the splendid Second Temple. After his entry on what we now call "Palm Sunday," (Matt 21:1-11), he proceeded to the Temple Mount and "drove out all who were buying and selling" and "overturned the tables of the money changers" (Matt 21:12). Significantly, he justified his actions by quoting none other than Jeremiah the prophet, indeed, from Jeremiah's Temple Sermon: "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." (Jer 7:11). Matthew tersely comments that the chief priests and teachers of the law "were indignant" (Mat 21:15). This time, however, the Lord did not provide human protectors for his beloved Servant; five days later the religious authorities arranged to have Jesus of Nazareth crucified. As we recall from Isaiah 53:9, "it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer."
Jeremiah, like Jesus, faced bitter opposition. Poor Jeremiah found himself a lonely voice shouted down by the numerous false prophets who condemned and ridiculed him all the while offering the people delusions and platitudes (Jer 23). Similarly, John's Gospel vividly portrays the contempt heaped upon Jesus by the religious leadership of Jerusalem. For example, in John 5:16 it says "the Jews persecuted him."[Note carefully that John typically uses the term "the Jews" in his Gospel to refer to the religious leaders and not the Jewish people as a whole. This must be constantly kept in mind when reading John's Gospel lest anti-Jewish or even anti-Semitic sentiments be encouraged or entertained] On another occasion, a crowd, largely in sympathy with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, accused Jesus of being demon-possessed (John 7:20). One time the Pharisees, in frustration at the power and impact of Jesus' works and words upon the ordinary people of Jerusalem, dismiss this admiration with utter disdain: "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But his mob that knows nothing of the law--there is a curse on them." (John 7:48). The rhetoric reaches a fever-pitch in the eighth chapter of John when the religious leaders indirectly accuse him of being an illegitimate son (John 8:41), being a Samaritan [whom most Jews bitterly hated] and being demon-possessed!(John 8:48). Jeremiah and Jesus knew what it was like "to be despised and rejected by men" (Isaiah 53:3).
There are so many fascinating parallels between these two prophets I could fill several blogs, but I'll be content with two more links. The first, in fact, links together three famous prophets, Samuel, Jeremiah and Jesus. The Hebrew Bible uses the term na'ar for both Samuel and Jeremiah when the LORD called them to be prophets (1 Sam 3:1; Jer 1:6). There is general agreement that a na'ar would be in the range of 12-17 years of age, that is, before being on one's own and still dependent upon a father for support. Jeremiah actually lived only 3 miles, the way the crow flies, from the home of Samuel in modern al Ram. Remarkably, Dr. Luke tells us that, like Samuel and Jeremiah, at the tender age of 12, Jesus already displayed a profound understanding of spiritual matters (Luke 2:42). Interestingly, most believers come to personal faith during this same time frame. I was baptized when I was ten years old.
Finally, Matthew finds what at first sight seems a most obscure connection between Jeremiah and Jesus. It has to do with Judas' betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, his tossing the coins into the temple treasury in remorse, and the religious leaders purchase of a field in which to bury foreigners outside Jerusalem with this "blood money" (Matt 27:6-10). Matthew says: "Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 'They took the thirty sliver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the LORD commanded me" (Matt 27:10).
A quick check to discover the source of this quotation reveals an interesting fact. Matthew has apparently brought together in one quotation two passages, Zechariah 11:12, 13 and Jeremiah 32:6-9. This illustrates a technique found in rabbinic exegetical tradition whereby two passages having common terms or concepts are conflated into one citation with only one source being actually cited. What we have in these two passages are the notions of buying a potter's field, paying a price which is so low as to be insulting, and throwing the coins to a potter in the temple precincts. Because Matthew sees the Old Testament prophets as foreshadowing and anticipating the coming of the Messiah, he sees here a correspondence between what happened in Jeremiah and Zechariah's day with what happened in Jesus' day. Jeremiah bought a potter's field for a price set by the people of Israel. Jesus was "sold out" by Judas for a price agreed upon by the leaders of the people of Israel.
Here is a bit of irony. Jeremiah never took possession of his property; he was forced into exile in Egypt and died there. Neither was Jesus buried in the field for foreigners (Acts 1:18-19). In fact, Jesus borrowed the tomb of a rich man for a few days--three as it turns out--and then he was exalted to the right hand of his heavenly father.
As a jumping off point (recall our previous blog!), it's worth calling to mind that many of Jesus' contemporaries thought he might in fact be Jeremiah come back from the dead. While in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"(Matt 16:13). Their reply is fascinating: "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (Matt 16:14). What was it about Jeremiah and Jesus that caused some to make this identification? I want to offer a couple of responses to this question, especially since I've now begun teaching on the book of Jeremiah in my class at JUC.
Jeremiah and Jesus do share some common characteristics. For example, both prophets were not afraid to take on popular but mistaken views at variance with God's revealed will. In fact, Scripture records a sermon by both prophets that cuts against the grain of cherished belief and incensed the listeners.
In the case of Jeremiah, we have two versions of the same sermon, chapters 7 and 26. Whereas chapter 7 provides the essential content of Jeremiah's famous "Temple Sermon," chapter 26 narrates the outraged response of those who heard it. Jeremiah sounds an urgent alarm: unless there is genuine repentance, the city and its temple are doomed (Jer 7:14-15, 20, 32-34). The people held out hope that just as the LORD had spared Jerusalem in the days of Sennacherib the Assyrian (See Isaiah 36-37), so too the LORD would deter Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. Jeremiah dashes this vain hope by reminding them of what happened in the days of Eli to Shiloh and the Ark of the Covenant (Jer 7:14; cf. 1 Sam 4). This was precisely what the people didn't want to hear! They clung in desperation to any words of hope thrown out by false prophets like life lines tossed to sailors whose ship has sunk. Jeremiah cuts off all such false hopes of deliverance. It takes real chutzpah to do this sort of thing! As you might expect, the initial reaction of the audience was to put him to death: "You must die!" (Jer 26:8). Had not the LORD provided a few friends in high places, Jeremiah would almost certainly have perished that day (Jer 26:17, 24). This episode strikes a similar note to Jesus' sermon in his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4) that I mentioned in my last blog.
But even more strikingly, Jesus also challenged the religious leadership of his day in the very place where Jeremiah had done so centuries before, only this time in the splendid Second Temple. After his entry on what we now call "Palm Sunday," (Matt 21:1-11), he proceeded to the Temple Mount and "drove out all who were buying and selling" and "overturned the tables of the money changers" (Matt 21:12). Significantly, he justified his actions by quoting none other than Jeremiah the prophet, indeed, from Jeremiah's Temple Sermon: "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." (Jer 7:11). Matthew tersely comments that the chief priests and teachers of the law "were indignant" (Mat 21:15). This time, however, the Lord did not provide human protectors for his beloved Servant; five days later the religious authorities arranged to have Jesus of Nazareth crucified. As we recall from Isaiah 53:9, "it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer."
Jeremiah, like Jesus, faced bitter opposition. Poor Jeremiah found himself a lonely voice shouted down by the numerous false prophets who condemned and ridiculed him all the while offering the people delusions and platitudes (Jer 23). Similarly, John's Gospel vividly portrays the contempt heaped upon Jesus by the religious leadership of Jerusalem. For example, in John 5:16 it says "the Jews persecuted him."[Note carefully that John typically uses the term "the Jews" in his Gospel to refer to the religious leaders and not the Jewish people as a whole. This must be constantly kept in mind when reading John's Gospel lest anti-Jewish or even anti-Semitic sentiments be encouraged or entertained] On another occasion, a crowd, largely in sympathy with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, accused Jesus of being demon-possessed (John 7:20). One time the Pharisees, in frustration at the power and impact of Jesus' works and words upon the ordinary people of Jerusalem, dismiss this admiration with utter disdain: "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But his mob that knows nothing of the law--there is a curse on them." (John 7:48). The rhetoric reaches a fever-pitch in the eighth chapter of John when the religious leaders indirectly accuse him of being an illegitimate son (John 8:41), being a Samaritan [whom most Jews bitterly hated] and being demon-possessed!(John 8:48). Jeremiah and Jesus knew what it was like "to be despised and rejected by men" (Isaiah 53:3).
There are so many fascinating parallels between these two prophets I could fill several blogs, but I'll be content with two more links. The first, in fact, links together three famous prophets, Samuel, Jeremiah and Jesus. The Hebrew Bible uses the term na'ar for both Samuel and Jeremiah when the LORD called them to be prophets (1 Sam 3:1; Jer 1:6). There is general agreement that a na'ar would be in the range of 12-17 years of age, that is, before being on one's own and still dependent upon a father for support. Jeremiah actually lived only 3 miles, the way the crow flies, from the home of Samuel in modern al Ram. Remarkably, Dr. Luke tells us that, like Samuel and Jeremiah, at the tender age of 12, Jesus already displayed a profound understanding of spiritual matters (Luke 2:42). Interestingly, most believers come to personal faith during this same time frame. I was baptized when I was ten years old.
Finally, Matthew finds what at first sight seems a most obscure connection between Jeremiah and Jesus. It has to do with Judas' betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, his tossing the coins into the temple treasury in remorse, and the religious leaders purchase of a field in which to bury foreigners outside Jerusalem with this "blood money" (Matt 27:6-10). Matthew says: "Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 'They took the thirty sliver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the LORD commanded me" (Matt 27:10).
A quick check to discover the source of this quotation reveals an interesting fact. Matthew has apparently brought together in one quotation two passages, Zechariah 11:12, 13 and Jeremiah 32:6-9. This illustrates a technique found in rabbinic exegetical tradition whereby two passages having common terms or concepts are conflated into one citation with only one source being actually cited. What we have in these two passages are the notions of buying a potter's field, paying a price which is so low as to be insulting, and throwing the coins to a potter in the temple precincts. Because Matthew sees the Old Testament prophets as foreshadowing and anticipating the coming of the Messiah, he sees here a correspondence between what happened in Jeremiah and Zechariah's day with what happened in Jesus' day. Jeremiah bought a potter's field for a price set by the people of Israel. Jesus was "sold out" by Judas for a price agreed upon by the leaders of the people of Israel.
Here is a bit of irony. Jeremiah never took possession of his property; he was forced into exile in Egypt and died there. Neither was Jesus buried in the field for foreigners (Acts 1:18-19). In fact, Jesus borrowed the tomb of a rich man for a few days--three as it turns out--and then he was exalted to the right hand of his heavenly father.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Reflections on Isaiah the Prophet
Today I held my last class on the prophet Isaiah. I regret that we had such a short time to examine the thought of this giant among the servants of the LORD, a recurring feeling each time I teach on the Hebrew prophets.
Here is a another prophet who greatly influenced our Lord Jesus. In fact, Jesus believed that the prophet Isaiah actually forecast his entire career! This is remarkable and requires a bit of unpacking.
There are five passages in the second half of the book of Isaiah displaying a distinct character and seemingly standing apart from their surrounding contexts. Scholars have labeled these passages as "the servant songs" because they feature a person who does the will of the LORD in a unique and unparalleled way. The passages in question are 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12; 61:1-3. The climactic song, the Mount Everest of the Old Testament, is without doubt 52:13-53:12. Here we have a sketch of the entire career of this choice servant of the LORD.
The passage begins on a note of triumph and exaltation: "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted" (52:13). But suddenly the song takes a surprising turn and plunges into descending levels of humiliation and suffering. This exalted figure is now a person at whom many are appalled and "his form is marred beyond human likeness." His background is lowly and unimpressive; he is "like a root out of dry ground" having little prospect, so it would seem, for the success the world craves. He is apparently not from the circles of the movers and shakers of his day. He was certainly not born with a "silver spoon in his mouth."
Beyond that, he "was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering." Popularity and fame are not his game. At this point, something almost inexplicable and unheard of happens. He becomes the scapegoat, the sin offering for "our" iniquities. I pointed out to my students the absolutely unparalleled circumstances that now unfold. "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Nowhere else in the Old Testament does an individual serve in this way. To be sure, animals were sacrificed without number during this period as a means of covering over the multitudinous sins of humanity. But nowhere does the LORD ordain that a human being stand in for sinners and actually pay the price for their transgressions--except here.
The mystery deepens. The text speaks of his undergoing a vicarious and substitutionary atonement like a lamb led to slaughter and a sheep before her shearers, yet he uttered not a word in protest or outrage. He willingly endured this punishment. There can be no doubt: he died. "He was cut off from the land of the living." This is confirmed by the following statement that "he was assigned a grave with the wicked." How very tragic and senseless this all seems because "he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." If ever there was an innocent victim, he was it. Confounding us is this unequivocal judgment: "it was the LORD'S will to crush him and cause him to suffer." How can this be?
Then the greatest mystery of all confronts us. The servant comes back to life! "Yet he will see his offspring and prolong his days . . . after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." How else can we describe this than a veritable resurrection from the dead?
The song now takes another dramatic turn. With the word "therefore" (53:12) the song soars and returns to the beginning point of triumph and exaltation: "I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong."
Christians, of course, know who this servant is. The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirits that this is the song of the Savior, our great suffering servant, who "poured out his life unto death" and "bore the sin of many."
The New Testament testifies in numerous places concerning the belief of the earliest Christians about the identity of this servant (John 8:38; Matthew 8:17; Luke 22;37; Acts 8:32-33; 1 Peter 2:22; among others). They were not unaided in this identification. The Lord himself made it quite clear that he was in fact the suffering servant.
The most dramatic instance of this self-identification took place in his home town of Nazareth. On a Sabbath, the local boy came home and his reputation as a teacher and healer led to his being invited to read the Scripture reading for the Sabbath. The text that day was Isaiah 61:1-4. He read most of it and then stopped mid-sentence: "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:19). He then rolled up the scroll and sat down. You can be sure he had everybody's attention! He had stopped reading in mid-sentence, something not to be done. Rather than start over again, he simply said: "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:20). Too bad we don't have an audio recording of the congregational response. It must have been one of the most amazing collective gasps you've ever heard! Jesus of Nazareth virtually proclaimed that he was the prophesied servant of the LORD.
What he did next is revealing. The synagogue was doubtless caught up in messianic fervor of a pronounced nationalistic brand. They would have joined a revolutionary movement in a moment behind his leadership. They could taste national liberation from the oppressive rule of Caesar and his minions. Jesus bitterly disappointed them. He spoke instead of two times in the Old Testament, significantly, during the days of Elijah and Elisha respectively, when God showed mercy to Gentiles. This is not what that patriotic Jewish congregation wanted to hear. They didn't want Gentiles in their midst at all. They wanted to rid the land of them! It was painfully and immediately obvious that Jesus' agenda was not compatible with Jewish nationalism. Their admiration turned quickly to hatred and they sought to cast him over the precipice of "Jumping Mountain" that we showed on our blog last time. "But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way" (Luke 4:30). Dr. Luke has just given us in a nutshell the storyline of his Gospel. The Christian reader knows where it goes and ends.
I break off at this point and return to the fourth servant song, Isaiah 52:13-53:12. I pointed out to my students that if you lay out the passage in the form of a parabola, you have a visual representation of what Jesus did for us. The storyline in short is this: From glory to glory. But in between the beginning and ending points of this parabola, you have the deep descent into humiliation and suffering. This pattern, what I called "the divine parabola," is captured precisely in Paul's great hymnic passage in Philippians 2:5-11. It follows the same pattern of moving from glory ("who being in very nature God") to humiliation and suffering ("made himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant . . humbled himself . . . became obedient unto death--even death on a cross!). But just like in Isaiah 53:12, in Philippians 2:11, the word "therefore" signals a dramatic reversal of fortune: "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name . . Jesus Christ is Lord." The Apostle Paul grasped what the prophet Isaiah was saying and memorably passed it along for the ongoing Christian community.
Yes, Jesus knew he was Isaiah's suffering servant. And just like the servant sketched in Isaiah 50:7, he set his face like flint (Luke 9:51), determined to accomplish his destiny with this assurance: "I know I will not be put to shame." And he was not.
Here is a another prophet who greatly influenced our Lord Jesus. In fact, Jesus believed that the prophet Isaiah actually forecast his entire career! This is remarkable and requires a bit of unpacking.
There are five passages in the second half of the book of Isaiah displaying a distinct character and seemingly standing apart from their surrounding contexts. Scholars have labeled these passages as "the servant songs" because they feature a person who does the will of the LORD in a unique and unparalleled way. The passages in question are 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12; 61:1-3. The climactic song, the Mount Everest of the Old Testament, is without doubt 52:13-53:12. Here we have a sketch of the entire career of this choice servant of the LORD.
The passage begins on a note of triumph and exaltation: "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted" (52:13). But suddenly the song takes a surprising turn and plunges into descending levels of humiliation and suffering. This exalted figure is now a person at whom many are appalled and "his form is marred beyond human likeness." His background is lowly and unimpressive; he is "like a root out of dry ground" having little prospect, so it would seem, for the success the world craves. He is apparently not from the circles of the movers and shakers of his day. He was certainly not born with a "silver spoon in his mouth."
Beyond that, he "was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering." Popularity and fame are not his game. At this point, something almost inexplicable and unheard of happens. He becomes the scapegoat, the sin offering for "our" iniquities. I pointed out to my students the absolutely unparalleled circumstances that now unfold. "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Nowhere else in the Old Testament does an individual serve in this way. To be sure, animals were sacrificed without number during this period as a means of covering over the multitudinous sins of humanity. But nowhere does the LORD ordain that a human being stand in for sinners and actually pay the price for their transgressions--except here.
The mystery deepens. The text speaks of his undergoing a vicarious and substitutionary atonement like a lamb led to slaughter and a sheep before her shearers, yet he uttered not a word in protest or outrage. He willingly endured this punishment. There can be no doubt: he died. "He was cut off from the land of the living." This is confirmed by the following statement that "he was assigned a grave with the wicked." How very tragic and senseless this all seems because "he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." If ever there was an innocent victim, he was it. Confounding us is this unequivocal judgment: "it was the LORD'S will to crush him and cause him to suffer." How can this be?
Then the greatest mystery of all confronts us. The servant comes back to life! "Yet he will see his offspring and prolong his days . . . after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." How else can we describe this than a veritable resurrection from the dead?
The song now takes another dramatic turn. With the word "therefore" (53:12) the song soars and returns to the beginning point of triumph and exaltation: "I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong."
Christians, of course, know who this servant is. The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirits that this is the song of the Savior, our great suffering servant, who "poured out his life unto death" and "bore the sin of many."
The New Testament testifies in numerous places concerning the belief of the earliest Christians about the identity of this servant (John 8:38; Matthew 8:17; Luke 22;37; Acts 8:32-33; 1 Peter 2:22; among others). They were not unaided in this identification. The Lord himself made it quite clear that he was in fact the suffering servant.
The most dramatic instance of this self-identification took place in his home town of Nazareth. On a Sabbath, the local boy came home and his reputation as a teacher and healer led to his being invited to read the Scripture reading for the Sabbath. The text that day was Isaiah 61:1-4. He read most of it and then stopped mid-sentence: "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:19). He then rolled up the scroll and sat down. You can be sure he had everybody's attention! He had stopped reading in mid-sentence, something not to be done. Rather than start over again, he simply said: "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:20). Too bad we don't have an audio recording of the congregational response. It must have been one of the most amazing collective gasps you've ever heard! Jesus of Nazareth virtually proclaimed that he was the prophesied servant of the LORD.
What he did next is revealing. The synagogue was doubtless caught up in messianic fervor of a pronounced nationalistic brand. They would have joined a revolutionary movement in a moment behind his leadership. They could taste national liberation from the oppressive rule of Caesar and his minions. Jesus bitterly disappointed them. He spoke instead of two times in the Old Testament, significantly, during the days of Elijah and Elisha respectively, when God showed mercy to Gentiles. This is not what that patriotic Jewish congregation wanted to hear. They didn't want Gentiles in their midst at all. They wanted to rid the land of them! It was painfully and immediately obvious that Jesus' agenda was not compatible with Jewish nationalism. Their admiration turned quickly to hatred and they sought to cast him over the precipice of "Jumping Mountain" that we showed on our blog last time. "But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way" (Luke 4:30). Dr. Luke has just given us in a nutshell the storyline of his Gospel. The Christian reader knows where it goes and ends.
I break off at this point and return to the fourth servant song, Isaiah 52:13-53:12. I pointed out to my students that if you lay out the passage in the form of a parabola, you have a visual representation of what Jesus did for us. The storyline in short is this: From glory to glory. But in between the beginning and ending points of this parabola, you have the deep descent into humiliation and suffering. This pattern, what I called "the divine parabola," is captured precisely in Paul's great hymnic passage in Philippians 2:5-11. It follows the same pattern of moving from glory ("who being in very nature God") to humiliation and suffering ("made himself nothing, taking the very form of a servant . . humbled himself . . . became obedient unto death--even death on a cross!). But just like in Isaiah 53:12, in Philippians 2:11, the word "therefore" signals a dramatic reversal of fortune: "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name . . Jesus Christ is Lord." The Apostle Paul grasped what the prophet Isaiah was saying and memorably passed it along for the ongoing Christian community.
Yes, Jesus knew he was Isaiah's suffering servant. And just like the servant sketched in Isaiah 50:7, he set his face like flint (Luke 9:51), determined to accomplish his destiny with this assurance: "I know I will not be put to shame." And he was not.
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