See, my servant will act wisely;
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him–
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness –
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 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.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
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.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

One of the most esteemed Bible teachers in my denomination lived in Leeds during his retirement. He was just down the road from Boston Spa where I lived and pastored a church. So I invited him to come and speak for us regularly, and what a privilege it was to sit under his ministry. He was such a kind and gracious man, and his life was always an even finer sermon than any of the great messages he brought.

Anyway, as a church, we often worked through Bible books and passages, and he would be happy to be given a text to address in his preparation. But I remember when we allocated to him Isaiah 53. When he got up to speak, it became obvious that he had never, in decades of ministry, expounded this chapter. Such was the reverence he felt for it. I’m sure he had often quoted it, and alluded to it, but he hadn’t approached it in the way we had asked him to. His very attitude was the sermon that day. I have never forgotten it, and I know others were also affected by it.

I have spent a lot of time, in the early months of this year, studying the fourth ‘Servant Song’, for various talks I’ve been doing. I am aware that there are depths here I have not begun to fathom. I feel the inadequacy of my words, and my unworthiness to write about it.

Perhaps the best we can do is to join our esteemed brother in ‘removing our shoes’ and marvelling at all we see around us on this ‘Holy ground’ of Isaiah 53.

PRAYER: ‘May I never lose the wonder, the wonder of the Cross.’