But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
-Isaiah 53.
The prophecy of the Man of Sorrows. From Bible Gateway's verse of the day for today, the prophecy represents the foretelling of Christ, and to a lesser extent, the suffering of the believer in those early years of the Church. Indeed, as is said that the word Martyr comes from Justin Martyr, one of the famous Christian apologists of his time, Christ and all the prophets ultimately were martyrs, except for John, who presumably lived to die of old age on the Isle of Patmos.
Of course, Christ is the ultimate martyr, slain by the dictates of an interpretation of the Mosaic Law, and we must remember that the prophets Isaiah and others often didn't meet natural ends either, but were known to be executed after falling out of favor with the holders of the Curse of the Law.
I was enrolled in a seminary course that had a three-course Survey of the Old Testament. I came across Isaiah chapter 53 having never heard of it before, not knowing what I was reading. Mystified, I came to my seminary-graduate Southern Baptist pastor and mentioned it. Upon the mentioning, a gleam came in his eyes, and to him, it must have been a kind of pleasure to share this prophecy of the road to salvation with people who, possibly, were unaware of that particularly chapter.
Indeed, Jesus suffered in order to spare us suffering: the heart of the Gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment