Communion Reflection Isaiah 52.13-15

In this passage, much like the more famous chapter 53, Isaiah foretells the Lord’s Servant who will be exalted.

This servant, who we are told will be exalted, is also described as suffering, of being beaten and disfigured beyond recognition even as human.

These two verses don’t seem to fit together. How can someone who the Lord is going to exalt, suffer like this?

Isaiah anticipates our conundrum with this seeming impossibility. But this is the divine secret, the basis of the mystery hidden before time, but now revealed.

When the Servant comes, His glory, His exalting will be accomplished through this mystery, and as a result, peoples and kings will not be able to utter a word. They will be dumbfounded by the way this Servant will be exalted.

Paul tells us in Philippians that His name has been exalted above all other names – Jesus, Messiah, the Christ has triumphed in death for us. In doing so, He has blessed and cleansed – or text says sprinkled – the entire world.

This is our God, the promised Servant who loved us so much that He was willing to be exalted through beatings and death. This love, this kind of love, this depth of love, when seen is truly dumbfounding to us, and especially to those who expect exalting to be done through obvious power, through physical might.

When we reflect on this sort of love, we two have our mouths stopped because they are surprised and shocked, and yet now they and we understand this plan, this Servant, this love.

Pray with me.

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