John 19:25-42

Isaiah Strikes Again!

My favorite Old Testament prophet is Isaiah. Isaiah had a long ministry but it would be safe to say that his heyday was around 700 B.C. In addition to writing some of the most powerful poetry every penned some of his prophetic utterances are simply mind-blowing. He goes on and on about Babylon almost a hundred years before Babylon was a significant military force in the region. He speaks of the fall of Babylon approximately a hundred and seventy-five years before the even. Even more astounding is the fact that he names Cyrus the Great as the man who would bring about Babylon’s fall. But as the great vaudeville performer Al Jolson used to say, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

The most remarkable twelve verses in the Old Testament comprise the totality of Isaiah chapter 53. He reveals more about Messiah in this chapter than any other twelve verses in all of Scripture. This blog isn’t the proper context for a deep look at Isaiah 53, but I do want to point out verse 9. “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

Here is what it tells us. Messiah would be executed like a criminal in spite of the fact that He was not found guilty of any violence, nor was He caught in a lie. Of course we just saw this happen. Pilate went so far as to say that there was simply no basis for a charge against Him at all.

As interesting as that is (especially when talking about Messiah) it certainly has happened to others both before and since. The kicker here is that even though He received a criminal’s execution, literally being executed in a horrible fashion between two thieves, He would be with the rich in His death. Imagine you are reading these words of Isaiah’s sometime in the seven hundred years before this fateful day. This is crazy talk. This doesn’t even make sense.

It didn’t make sense right up until the time that a wealthy merchant named Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He and another rich man named Nicodemus then took Jesus’ body and, instead of it being dumped into garbage as was the usual custom with executed criminals, they took it and gave Him a first class burial even placing Him in a new tomb.

It is unlikely in the extreme that they knew they were fulfilling scripture. But we know. The words of Isaiah had struct again; therefore he must also have been right when he said:
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.