Fifty Two Weeks / Isaiah 53a

Picture or Words?

The saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words” is attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. There is much truth in that statement; however, some combination of words are worth more than others. There is no picture, or groups of groups of pictures that could ever express the piercing beauty, power, and truth of John 3:16.

Depending on the translation you choose there are approximately 385 words in this chapter. If you were to multiply those words by a thousand you would still be unable to match their power or importance. Perhaps John 3:16 contains the most precious message ever heard by mankind, but Isaiah 53 contains that same message and when combined with the fact that it was written 700 years before Christ appeared and expresses in startling detail facts about His purpose, life, and death it can be easily argued that this is simply the most astounding 385 words ever penned. 

A quick look at the first five verses reveals the following:

• When Messiah comes people in general will not believe that He is actually the One.
• When He comes He will come in a form extremely vulnerable and seemingly easily destroyed. (Like a tender shoot.)
• He will come into a barren and seemingly hopeless situation. This would well describe being born to peasant parents in a cultural backwater occupied by Rome and led by a spiritually bankrupt priesthood far more interested in political cunning than the possibility of God sending Messiah.
• He will not draw people to Him by His beauty or the aurora of power emanating from His person or entourage. 
• Instead of being a pampered ruler He will know suffering and pain. This could easily describe an itinerant rabbi whose father passed away, whose own family did not believe in Him, and who had “no place to lay His head.”
• Rather than being welcomed with eager rejoicing He will be despised and rejected. People might even call Him a drunkard and guys who hangs out with a bad crowd. For sure the religious leaders (those supposedly closest to God) will almost universally reject Him. They may even consider Him dangerous and want to kill Him.
• When He finally comes to His seeming end it will be for our sakes but we will think that He is getting what He deserves. We might even convict Him of blaspheming God. Surely that is worthy of death.

Who would believe in Isaiah’s day that this would describe Messiah? Who would believe it in Jesus of Nazareth’s day? Yet, this is Isaiah’s report and this is exactly what happened. 

I did say that the message of John 3:16 was contained in this chapter, and it is. Verse 5 isn’t the geographic center of this chapter but it is the literary and spiritual center. All of these other things Isaiah prophesied came to pass, but by God’s grace this was the result:

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

      he was crushed for our iniquities;

      the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

      and by his wounds we are healed.

No picture could ever describe that.