April 20

The Suffering Servant

            Who has believed what we have heard? 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 form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

            Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:1-7

            Jewish prophecy spoke of two individuals who were to be sent by God to the Israelites.  The Messiah would deliver His people, restoring God’s kingdom to Earth, righting all injustices and bringing peace to the Earth.  The Suffering Servant would be God’s sacrifice for the evil of His children.  The weight of the people’s sins and mistakes would be poured upon him as his suffering would bring healing and wholeness to the nations.

            As the Ethiopian Eunuch rode through the wilderness, he came across Isaiah’s account of the Suffering Servant and was intrigued.  Who was this?  Was this future or past?  How could he find out what it meant?  Then from the side of the road a stranger appeared who claimed to be sent by God.  Philip explained that the Messiah and the Suffering Servant were both embodied by Jesus, the Son of God who had been recently executed and then miraculously resurrected.  He had ascended to Heaven and had promised to return one day to fulfill the totality of the Messianic Prophecies.

            Jesus, the All-Powerful God, chose to take on flesh.  Instead of choosing to be rich, powerful, majestic or royal…he chose the role of the Man of Sorrows.  He became familiar with infirmity, disease and rejection.  Out of every demographic on the earth, He chose the poor, the uneducated, the diseased, the broken and the desperate to make His people.  Everywhere that He went, he was surrounded by those who were lost and hurting.  They were desperate for someone to see them and hear them and tell them that there was hope.   Jesus chose the IDD community as his own when the rest of the world kicked them into the streets or exiled them to camps outside of the city walls.

            Jesus bore our infirmities and carried our diseases.  It was not that He was afflicted with every diagnosis known to man.  On the cross the weight of mankind’s sin and the repercussions of those sins were poured out upon Him.  All of the fear and despair and pain and rejection that the afflicted carry were piled upon Him.  He bore it all.  He sees it all.  He knows the feeling of it all.

            We not only have a Creator…we not only have a Savior…we in the IDD world have a Champion who walked in our shoes.  He saw the marginalized and the weak.  He identified Himself with those whose bodies were broken and whose minds were scattered.  We are not alone.  We are not invisible.  The Lord of the Universe has a special place in His heart for those who suffer with physical challenges.

            We have a Champion.

A moment to reflect:

List the pressures that you carry around with you each and every day.  Those are not yours alone to bear.  Jesus carries them with you.