Names of Jesus | Advent DevotionalНамуна

Wednesday, December 4
Isaiah 53 | Man of Sorrows
Author: Dr. Tim Sansbury

God is afflicted, stricken, and grieved? Christ as the Man of Sorrows is so embedded in our minds as Christians that it is often hard to remember how strange this is. It would have been strange for a Jew. It would have been strange for a Gentile. And really, it ought to be strange for us today.

A Jew had a very clear expectation of a new king, in the line of David, who would come and conquer. Losing—a battle, territory, wealth, esteem—was a sign of a king out of favor with God. And the coming messiah would be a better king than David… he would not lose, and so certainly, he could never be a man of sorrows. He would be a mighty, victorious king on a hill, leading the perfected people of God before the defeated nations.

The Gentiles had no such expectations for a coming messiah and king, but they knew what it meant for the gods to come to earth. Many stories told of gods walking among us, but even if hidden, they were always mighty, always victorious, always self-serving, and certainly never lost to mere humans. A god coming down in human form? Reasonable. A god dying at the hands of regular people? No chance.

Even now, for us today, this God and king who gives himself up for his subjects should be a shock. Think of our earthly leaders today … they may not be kings and gods, but they are certainly self-serving, and no defeat is ever treated like a victory. Losses are permanent stains, or else they are denied outright, no matter the evidence. Weakness and power are never together. A leader today with Christ’s record of loss would indeed be considered stricken, afflicted, and smitten by God.

But not so with Jesus. Jesus defies every normal human idea of power. Jesus had almighty power and set it aside for people who were his enemy. He did not merely hide it to be revealed in a great triumph, but he fully released himself into the hands of his enemies. And he did it for his enemies themselves. It is us! By his dreadful wounding, we, his enemies, are entirely healed.

As you reflect on Christ this advent season, remember that he is a king above all Jewish imagination, yet stricken. He is God above any Greek imagination from Olympus and yet subjected to humiliation in a backwater territory of Rome. He rules beyond any modern government, yet even now, graciously allows his creation to live in rebellion so that more may be called to that salvation made possible by his death and resurrection. He is no distant God above all trial and tribulation, but a God beyond all human imagination who came down to be a man of sorrows so that we could become his joy in salvation. Praise God!