The Suffering Servant

Virtually all of us at one time or other have asked the question, “Is God fair?” I am only guessing, but maybe it is just part of our human nature to ask this question. But it would seem to me that any fair-minded individual would conclude that this question was answered conclusively once and for all time some 2,000 years ago through the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God came to this lowly plain of existence in human flesh and suffered the most unfair treatment throughout all of history. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was not allowed to enjoy peace Himself. Jesus Christ, Who had existed for eternity in the lavishness and glory of Heaven, lived His life on Earth as a homeless, itinerant wanderer Who was denied wealth and possessions, even saying at one point “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:2). The Lord and Creator of the universe lived a relatively short period of time as a Man Whose life was well acquainted with grief and full of sorrows, a Man Who was ultimately cruelly and ignominiously murdered by a jealous mob stirred up into a blood-thirsty frenzy by religious leaders who were envious of His popularity among the common people.

There are those who teach a false gospel that proclaims that God will grant an individual wealth and prosperity in this life if they are but a good person. But the fact of the matter is we are not promised a rose garden in this life. On the contrary, the true disciple of Jesus Christ is demanded to “take up his cross” (Matthew 16:24) and follow the Lord, for the true disciple is promised persecution for the name of Jesus Christ: “Beloved,” writes the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:12-14, “do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” This hardly sounds like we are being promised a rose garden . . . it sounds more like a roasted garden to me! So why should we expect to live an unblemished life when we bring the baggage of sin along with us, while Jesus Christ, the only sinless One, had to suffer?

Yes, indeed, the Master of the universe, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, was also the Suffering Servant. Several different spokesmen of God had prophesied his coming literally hundreds of years earlier. The prophet Isaiah said the future Savior would be "a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering" in Isaiah 53:3. He was to be the willing Lamb led to the slaughter by His God. Isaiah wrote of Jesus: "it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer" (Isaiah 53:10). Why must this be? Jesus, the promised Messiah, had to suffer in order to pay for human sin and make salvation possible (Isaiah 53:12).

May our Lord’s suffering give us faith and love in God when we find ourselves in our darkest moments. God in the flesh, thank You for coming!