The Suffering ServantSample

I recently saw a clip from a TV show, where an angel and a demon were watching the crucifixion. The demon turned to the angel and asked, “What was it he said that got everyone so upset?” “Be kind to each other,”the angel said, with a look of sweet compassion on his face. “Oh, yeah, that’ll do it,” the demon responded.

I just about put my foot through the screen.

Fortune cookies say things like, “Be kind to each other.” The meanest teacher you ever knew used to say, “Be kind to each other.” No, they didn’t nail Jesus to the Cross because he wouldn’t stop talking about the virtues of being kind. They nailed Jesus to the Cross because they could not hope to match him.

Next to him, their hollow words of pretended faith became obvious lies. When push came to shove, they preferred Barabbas. Barabbas, the murderer, instead of Jesus, who healed their diseases, who cast out their demons, and who spoke with authority as the only Son of the Father. The religious leaders made great efforts to appear holy, with their lengthy prayers for all to hear, and all the new traditions they cooked up to show how much better they were than everyone else. But, compared to the bright glory of Jesus, their best good deeds were filthy.

They nailed Jesus to the Cross because he was God in the flesh and, no matter what they claimed, they hated God, and they loved their sin.

But Jesus was willing to go to the Cross—and he didn’t go only for those who loved him. It would have been easy to go to the Cross for Mary, the mother who bore him and loved him; or Joseph, who raised him as his own, despite not being his father. But, beyond all imagining—the hope beyond all hope—Jesus went to the Cross for us. He went to the Cross, not just because he said we should be kind, but because we have all been so utterly cruel. He went to the Cross, not because we have merely fallen short, but because we have been “haters of God” (Rom. 1:30).

Jesus went to the Cross to show “God’s love for us” because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Have you ever wondered about the penalty that Jesus paid or the weight of the sin on his shoulders? If you’ve lived for any time, you know the weight of a guilty conscience. But on the Cross, Jesus bore the penalty for billions: each and every believer, from Adam until the end of time—however many centuries or millennia we have to go. But his eyes were set firmly upon the prize: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Because God’s love for humanity is so great, even as we have hated him so, Jesus bore our iniquities.

Because Jesus was God’s suffering servant, in life and in death, you and I have been made free.