Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Matthew 26:36-46
Okay, let’s turn to Isaiah 52, verse 13. It is a familiar passage to us. We read often around Easter. Of course, we went through Isaiah and probably hit on this passage back in, I don’t know, last spring or summer.
So Isaiah 52, beginning at 13, God’s word says, behold, my servant, the suffering servant, remember? My servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up. He shall be exalted as many were as astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what they heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no former majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his strikes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man, in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
In Galatians chapter 3, just those two verses 13 and 14, this reminds us that those who died on a cross or a tree, as the Old Testament puts it, are cursed. So Galatians 3.13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
And then finally, the passion narrative, a portion of it from Matthew 26. Matthew 26 beginning at verse 36. This is where Jesus prays with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. Taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away, prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
Then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest. Later on, see the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise and let us be going. My betrayer is at hand. Amen. This is God’s word.
When I was in seminary, we had to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism in order to graduate. Pretty daunting thing, but it turned out to be one of the best, absolute best things ever in my life. And there was a cassette tape believe it or not, remember what those are, that we passed around among the brothers.
Yesterday in the mail I received a package and I opened it up and a friend of mine who we had commuted together in the car, we had listened to that tape together and over the last 20 some years he had put together a study on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In the front of his booklet This isn’t a New York Times bestseller or anything, but in the front of his booklet, he put in the acknowledgements, to my friend, Brian, for giving me the cassette tape.
And so I texted him and I said, you remember that. He says, I actually still have the tape. So we had a little back and forth banter about it. But one of the blessings, I think, of the catechism is it puts words in your mouth and mind that help you nuance particulars of our theology and the particulars of our theology are really important.
We have lived in a soundbite armchair theology culture and we have come up with really goofy sayings that have no biblical basis. And we hear them all the time and we say them all the time. Not we because y’all y’all are you know, y’all have been in rehab like me and you’ve, you’ve learned the good stuff. Right. Um, but, but it’s good to, uh, know and understand these things so that it helps us say particular things particularly.
And when you come to the suffering of Jesus and not only the suffering of Jesus, but what his suffering meant or means for sinners, you have to be very careful how you speak. Um, because we don’t want to become universalist. where Jesus died for everybody. And if, if only they will hear the gospel call, uh, then his shed blood is for them.
We don’t want to be Lutherans who are, uh, very passive. Jesus died for everybody. And if you don’t goof it up, you’ll get in. Um, I think that’s how they believe. Um, and then we also don’t want to be Armenians where, uh, God gives his 50% Gee whiz, that’s just bad math, isn’t it? God gives his 50 and you give your 50 and what does 50 and 50 make? And there, you know, boy, that’s out there as well.
But we want to see that it is all of Jesus. Every bit, all the way, all of Jesus. Well, back to the cassette tape. My friend and I were chatting yesterday about how we We listen to the words, but also the person speaking the words. And you’re reminded of the truths of theology based on the inflections and the way things are said. And these kind of things stick with you in your brain, but also in your heart, and they become very dear to you. And you’re able to speak of Jesus in wonderful ways.
Like he is the eternal, only begotten son of God. He became man. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. He was born of the Virgin Mary, yet without sin, an important distinction. He is both God and man, two distinct natures, one person forever. The dust of the earth is on the throne of glory to this day. He didn’t cease to be man. He took on our nature, he took on our infirmities, and he took on our sin. But his life outside of heaven and in this world east of Eden was a difficult life for him. Even his own people were out for him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. Then the crooked Romans, the power hungry Pontius Pilate and Herod put him to death.
But we also have to remember that his father, if you can say it this way, was out for him. Because when he who knew no sin became sin for us, he took in his body the curses due us. He took them in his own body. And so you can say, in a sense, the father was out for Jesus as well. And that’s why he sweat and prayed that night before.
But what does Peter and the other disciples say and preach in the book of Acts? It was the definite plan. and foreknowledge of God, that he would go to Jerusalem and go to the cross at the hands of sinners. But what are we also told? Someday every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And so there are so many wonderful words and pictures in our minds, I think, of the life of the Lord Jesus.
The Romans accused him of sedition. The Jews accused him, tried him and held him accountable, so to speak, for blasphemy. And it just so happened in the providence of God, the cross was the instrument whereupon he would die. And it matches Old Testament prophecy so well. We speak of Jesus as prophet, priest, and King, prophet who speaks, priest who ministers, King who rules. But we also speak of his humiliation and his exaltation. And this whole section we think of tonight is his humiliation.
And you think about it, one third of the gospels, one third of the gospels speak about one week of his life. We get a little bit of Christmas, the advent, the birth of Jesus in the gospels, we get nothing of his formative years. And then we get a good bit on his earthly ministry, a couple of years, but a third of the gospels are about his passion week, his suffering week. And he wasn’t terribly busy in the early part, but it was the end part, just a few days of that week that were quite significant for us.
But if we understand our theology, if we understand our catechism, we understand the particulars of a particular event. We understand that in the covenant of redemption, when Jesus, when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternity past said, we’re going to make a people for ourselves. We’re going to permit a fall into sin. And then we’re going to seek and save the loss through the second person of the Trinity becoming man, obeying in our place, dying in our place and redeeming us. restoring what was lost in the garden. We understand the covenant of redemption. We understand the particulars of the work of Jesus really well. I wrote some notes sideways here, so I got to turn. You could say in a sense that Jesus’ life was built for that week. His life was building up towards Passion Week. If you read the Gospels, and maybe some of you are doing the Bible through a year thing and you’re in the Gospels now, take notice of the geographical language, the geographical progress of Jesus towards Jerusalem. In fact, by the time you get to near Passion Week, you read statements like, Jesus set his face like a flint towards Jerusalem. We talk from time to time about going up to Jerusalem, usually refers to worship. For Jesus, this final trip going up to Jerusalem was to do the work of the cross. And what does he say a couple of times? Peter wants to get in his way and couple others, I must go. He was resolute in his life of humiliation and the Passion Week reaches a pitch point, so to speak, in the life of his ministry for us.
And so we come to the, I understand the word suffered. We come to the Pontius Pilate. reference, and then we come to the crucified reference, and we find some really significant points of theology and salvation. First, when we say I understand the word suffered, at least in Heidelberg Catechism language, we understand it to mean that the Son of God, all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, bore in body and soul the wrath of God.
Now, remember back to Heidelberg question one, what is my only comfort in life and in death? It’s that I belong in both body and soul. Why is body and soul important for us? Why is it important for Jesus? Because in his life, he bore in his body and in his soul, he bore the wrath of God against the sins of the whole human race. And if some of your flags are going off and saying, what the Heidelberg sounds, Armenian, we’ll come to that in a second because it does, but it’s not, don’t worry.
Uh, but we understand that when Jesus suffered the whole humiliation of Jesus, uh, extended from his leaving heaven and his going into the grave and staying under the power of death, uh, for, for a time. When we understand his suffering, we understand that he left the riches of heaven. What does Corinthians say? Thou who was rich in heaven for our sakes became us poor in order that we might become rich. We sing an old French carol, I think, Thou who was rich beyond all measure for our sakes became us poor. Kind of a reminder of those great truths.
But when Jesus left heaven, his descent, his humiliation began. He was born into a poor family. He wasn’t raised on a silver spoon, as we like to say. He didn’t go to the Ivy Leagues or prep school. He was, what did they love to say at Christmas now? Jesus was a refugee. Yeah, I don’t really buy that. He wasn’t a refugee, was he? He was just going, with his family in utero at the time. Later, he was out and about, but he was going to fulfill prophecy. He had to be born in Bethlehem, and so what was the instrument God used to get Jesus and Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem? It was a census, that’s right. So he wasn’t a refugee, he was a taxpayer. Something a little better, but he also wasn’t Palestinian, was he? Because I think he was kind of, Abraham, which would make him Jewish. Yeah, you hear a lot of stuff during Christmas that’s really, you know, let’s use Jesus to our political advantages. But see, y’all are catechism and Bible people. You don’t buy all that stuff because it makes your alarms go off.
But when Jesus left the riches of heaven, he went into the womb of a young poor maiden. He was born away from home. He was born in a stable, whatever that was meant to mean. He, you know, had a lot more indecencies than most of us will ever experience.
Remember when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, the reference is they lived east of Eden. And east of Eden is full of thorns and thistles. You hammer a nail, you hit your thumb. You have a baby, it hurts. You raise children, it hurts. You have strife even between natural born sons. One kills the other over worship. People have pride and build towers and this and that and the other. And so he lived in the world that rejected his father. He lived in the world that rejected his righteous law that made life work best. And he lived in this world where there were bad people. There was the devil. There was suffering and death by Rome and even by the Jewish authorities. but then there was the wrath of God.
So when we understand Jesus suffered, it was his life conditions. Yes, but it was also his death conditions and it was in the body, the Romans, but it was also the anguish of his soul, his heavenly father. And so, uh, we’ll take care of the Arminian thing here right quick. When it says, I understand the word suffered to mean that the son of God, all the time that he lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life bore in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sins of the whole human race. Uh, that sounds kind of Arminian, doesn’t it? Sounds a little universal. He died, Jesus died for everybody. Well, what’s the logical end to Jesus dying for everybody? If he died for everybody, then why do some people go to, Hell. What do we call that in the legal world? Double jeopardy. But what do we say about God? God is righteous. God is holy. God is just. And if God is just, he can’t put Jesus on the cross for sins and punish him. And then when, oh, whoopsie, I didn’t respond to the gospel, I go to hell. I get punished for something somebody else already got punished for. That’s just not legal. That’s not righteous. That’s not just.
But what does the confession of faith mean here when it says against the sins of the whole human race? Well, it’s where theology becomes very particular. Jesus’ death, Jesus’ sacrifice, Jesus’ atonement, it could save the world a bazillion times over, right? We understand that the power of Jesus’ atoning death, it could be sufficient to save worlds and planets and people unseen, untold. It could be infinite in its efficacy. But what do we understand? It’s sufficient for all, but it’s effective for some. And we go back to that theology we understand in our covenant theology, the pactum salutis, the covenant of redemption, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, said what will bring us most glory will create a people for ourselves will permit a fall and Then the second person of the Trinity will go seek and save the lost and he will die for those He came to save the Good Shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep The pactum salutis the covenant of redemption didn’t say we’re gonna be universalist We’re gonna be Unitarian Universalists where Jesus died for everybody and however you bump into salvation and you know, you go, right? You have at it, right? That’s what the world would say, but that’s not how God works. And so our reformed confession says, yes, he bore in his body and soul, the wrath of God against the sins of the whole human race, sufficient for all for sure, but effective for some in our little tulip thing. You know, the tulip was the response to the Armenians, total depravity, Unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, ill limited atonement. It’s probably, it mess up the whole tulip thing, but it make it tupip, because it should be particular atonement, right? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to seek and save those in covenant with him.
What do we say? Let’s see if I can get my brain in gear here. We talk about those four, imputations. Adam’s sin was imputed or credited to the account of all human beings born after him, right? So if you’re born after Adam, guess what you are stuck with? Original sin. And what proceeds from original sin? Actual sins. Okay. And then the sins of the elect were imputed to Jesus on the cross. Did Jesus sin ever? No. But if our sins were imputed to him, like the scapegoat, remember the priest would put his hands on the head of the goat. and impute the sins of Israel onto the goat. And what would the goat do? He’d go outside the camp and wander off in the wilderness and eventually would die.
So the sins of the elect were imputed to Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin. And what’s that wonderful preposition that’s so important? For us. And then the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to believers by faith. And so how does God see us when we come to him by faith? As if we never sinned and as if we always obey. Did you never sin? Did you always obey? Didn’t think so. Me neither. Impossible. But it’s imputed to us from Jesus by faith. And so there are transactions made at the cross. That’s the thing we need to understand. That big transaction is redemption. It says, in order that by his passion as the only atoning sacrifice, He might redeem our bodies and our souls from everlasting damnation.
I said earlier, we shouldn’t get our theology from Mel Gibson. Yeah. There’s somebody else that’s popped up lately. We shouldn’t get our theology from them. And I don’t want to, I don’t want to, this person, I think it’s a movie star. They make movies too. They said recently there is no hell. There’s only, I think it’s annihilation. Does that ring a bell with anybody? I’m kind of thinking it’s somebody, I have their name, but I don’t want to say it because it could, you know, it might be wrong. But anyway, we either go to heaven or hell, body and soul. When we die, our souls, if we’re Christians, go into glory. And when Jesus comes back at the resurrection, he raises up our bodies from the grave, unites them with our redeemed souls already in heaven enjoying him. And at the resurrection, body and soul, we enjoy Jesus forever in glory.
But when a unbeliever dies, their soul goes into everlasting darkness. And then at the resurrection, their body is raised up as well, united with that damn soul. And where did that body and soul spend eternity? In hell, forever. And so it’s important to understand this body and soul language. Jesus’ body and soul went to hell on the cross. so that we might not be there forever apart from him. So he redeemed us. He bought us. And the price of redemption was his own life, his own blood. It was a costly redemption. He saved us from everlasting damnation, but he obtained three things for us. We speak of redemption accomplished. That was his work on the cross. But then we also speak on the flip side or the backside of the coin, redemption applied. And he, bought for us the grace of God. What do we say? Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Grace is unmerited favor. Give me grace, don’t give me wrath. Give me grace, don’t give me justice. So he obtained for us the grace of God. He obtained for us the righteousness, the right standing before God, a holy standing before God, and he obtained for us eternal life. There’s way more than that, of course. but at least here in this confession, it speaks.
So when we hear or say suffered under Pontius Pilate, our brain should go a thousand places now, shouldn’t it? He was born in a manger. Uh, you know, he got spit on, he got crowns of thorns. You know, we could, we could think through all the indignities. When we say he suffered, we could even think of the wrath of God, the sweating blood that my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so our brains, when we think of suffered, should go a thousand places because of this explanation.
The second phrase of our catechism says Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate. I mentioned last week that only Mary and Pilate get mentioned in the creed. They’re right there, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then there’s Mary and Pontius Pilate. And we mentioned the Catholics love to revere Mary. But are we revering Pontius Pilate? No. What did he do? Well, he was a mean, nasty, ruthless man. In fact, he was so mean, nasty, and ruthless that history tells us that he was recalled to Rome because he was not very kind to people. And what did the Romans want? They wanted peace and order at some cost, but not at all cost. And so what did Pilate do? did whatever was expedient to keep his thin little hide in office and get his government pension.
When we understand Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, he was the judge, the human judge, the temporal judge, who said this innocent man must die. And so in the providence of God, the foreknowledge of God, the plan of God, what was the means? What were the means by which the son of God went to a cross and died? It was nothing but a crooked judicial system. Now we’ve seen crooked judicial systems before in the scripture. Particularly, we saw unjust situations with Joseph, who would be a type or a foreshadowing of Jesus, but forsaken by his brothers, you know, put in a pit, sold off to slave trade, sent off to Potiphar’s house. You know, the wife falsely accused him. At least Potiphar spared his life, but he put him in jail for 10 or so years. And how does Joseph interpret this whole situation later when he sees his brothers and their treacherous bloodstained hands. He says what God intended or what you intended for evil, God intended for good. And of course we can say that with greater oomph and zeal when it comes to the cross or when it comes to Pontius Pilate.
But that’s the, those are the means by which God in his definite plan and foreknowledge delivered up his own son to a cross the prophesied cross where he would die for the sins of his sheep, delivered us from the severe judgment of God to which we were exposed. And then the final statement, there is more in Christ being crucified than if he had died some other death. I don’t know what we think of Jesus’ crucifixion, I mean, do we think, oh, it could have been the electric chair if it was today. It could have been the firing squad if it was, you know, a generation ago. It could be, you know, in modern medical times, lethal injection or, you know, however it is, they off criminals in various ways. There’s been, what, the guillotine. There’s been the gallows. There’s been this, that, or the other. Why did it need to happen at that particular time and in that particular era? because it needed to be a cross. If he had died some other death would not have fulfilled prophecy. If he had died some other death, he would not have taken on himself the curse. And so there is more in Christ being crucified than if he died some other death.
For by that means, by the cross, we are assured that he took on himself the curse that lay upon me. For the death of the cross was accursed of God. We know the covenant language, I think, pretty well. God is a covenant making God. He expects us to be a covenant keeping people. There are blessings if you obey, like for Adam and Eve, if they obeyed, they would have lived forever. There are curses if you disobey, death. And so every covenant in the Bible, there’s a presentation of here’s the covenant. There’s a presentation of curses and there’s a presentation of blessings.
And so how does God How does God rescue and redeem us? Someone has to be cursed covenantally so that we can be blessed covenantally. And what is the covenant of grace? Jesus becomes sin for us. gives us his obedience and righteousness. And then by faith, not by obedience, because we could never obey the law perfectly and get salvation, but by faith in Jesus, the covenant keeper, we are viewed and seen as covenant keepers.
So let me encourage you, think often on the person and work of Jesus. Maybe a good exercise would be get one of those little shorter catechism booklets we have laying around. and learn those nuances. They are really helpful. Sinclair Ferguson is so good to say that the catechism is like Velcro to which preaching sticks. But it can also help us when Hollywood tries to teach us theology and we say, I don’t know about that. It can help us in those right ways.
Let’s pause now and give thanks and praise to our Redeemer for our redemption. Lord, we give you thanks for Christ. You could have left us dead in our sins, dead in our trespasses, but because of your rich love and mercy, you have come in our own nature and served us in a hard stretch of life in our own nature. And you have saved our natures, our bodies and our souls from everlasting death and destruction.
Lord, as we sit here tonight and hear your word, as we sit here tonight and know that we are forgiven, and as we have in the back of our minds or on the front of our minds, the hope of heaven, we have to look at what it took to give us these things, these graces, and realize what a God, what a Savior, what a Redeemer. And we are filled with thanks. And so here are our prayers as we make them in the name of Christ. Amen.
Number 257, stricken, smitten and afflicted is our song.