A Good Friday Poem

I was there in the crowd when my Savior died.
I am the man who yelled “crucify!”
I am the soldier who pierced His bloodied side
I am the one who His name denied.

I am the one who falsely accused.
I am the one who jeered and abused.
I am the one without an excuse
As I abandoned Him to the crowd's woos.

I betrayed Him with a kiss.
I gave Him up for less than He is.

I am the one who plucked His beard
I am the one who mocked and cheered
But I am the one who should have feared.
While in pity, His heavenly eyes teared

He took the path I should have tread;
I am the criminal who should have gone instead
But even as I placed the thorns on His head
I was the one who should have been dead.

And though it was my sins that sent Him to Calvary,
It was all according to His perfect plan
And though His death was because of me,
No detail escaped His sovereign hand.

He chose to die so that I might live.
When I took his life away, He chose to give.
I am the captive that He set free
By suffering Hell and giving His life...for me.

-Nathan C. Matthews

Isaiah 53:7-9

7He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth.

8By oppression and judgment He was taken away;

And as for His generation, who considered

That He was cut off out of the land of the living

For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

9His grave was assigned with wicked men,

Yet He was with a rich man in His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Here we see that though Christ's death was graphic as previously described and the most excruciating and undeserved pain that anyone has ever endured, Jesus never opened His mouth to defend Himself or complain. Trexton puts it this way: "Meekly and without protest the Servant accepts His sentence to death and suffers execution. Although innocent, He is given a felon's grave." Ultimately, Christ's silence was not an admission of guilt, but instead a sign of His utter willingness.

However, Christ was vindicated in His burial. Because Joseph of Arimathea took Christ's body, He was not buried with the criminals, but instead in with a rich man.

Also, in this passage we see another image that is used to represent Christ- that of the Passover Lamb. So, not only is He the Good Shepherd who looks after His sheep, but also the Sheep who is sacrificed for His people. In fact, this is the image we see at the end of time. Through His sacrifice, Christ achieved the glory of not only being Creator, but Savior as well (Revelation 5:11-13).

Interesting note, this was the portion that was being read by the Ethiopian Eunuch when Phillip shared the Gospel with Him (Acts 8:26-34)

Isaiah 53:4-6

4Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

6All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

Here begins in earnest the description of Christ's sacrfice. The first thing that we notice in these verses is that it is our sin that He died for. This passage makes it perfectly clear that He was without fault and that His death was not punishment for anything within Himself. Even so, when the onlookers saw Christ dying, many believed that it was well-deserved. After all, it is the crowd who killed Him. But He was not dying for His own sins, for He had none. Instead, He was pierced through for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

We must never forget this significant truth, for this is the core of our faith, the hope of our salvation. If Christ had been dying for His sins or as a result of some sin, it would mean that He was a false Messiah and not worthy to be followed and His atonement would have done nothing for us.

And our need for a Messiah is explained in verse 6, All of us like sheep have gone astray. Geoffrey W. Grogan, commentating on this writes: "Like sheep, our going astray is willful and purposeless." He also mentions that this image, that of the Good Shepherd is "probably a suggestion that this is an offense against love as well as holiness, for the Divine Shepherd is a tender loving image in the Bible."

And yet, though we all sinned against God's love as well as His holiness, it was an act of that same love in perfect accordance with God's holiness that secured for us our salvation.

Isaiah 53:1-3

1 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 men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

In the beginning of this chapter, the prophecy switches to prophetic past tense which is the natural tense for those of us who now live after these events.

Who has believed... revealed implies that few would believe when Christ came. This was certainly fulfilled when Christ came and died. Israel did not recognize the arm of the Lord and for this reason He was despised and rejectd by men. But even though Christ was despised and rejected and misunderstood, God watched and guided every detail of Christ's life as shown in 2a.

No stately form means that though Christ was and is the King Eternal, He did not come with any royal garb or emblem that showed Him to be a king. And though His way did not make sense to man, the Lord's might was in this all the way.

Lastly, this section begins the description of Christ's atoning death, which will be further discussed in the coming verses. For now, note that before His death, Christ was first despised by men and forsaken by them. But notice that these verses do not simply leave the blame on others, but is all inclusive in stating that we esteemed Him not. Christ's blood is on all our hands and tomorrow we will see what this means for us.

Isaiah 52:13-15

13 Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.
15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

First, I would just like to point out that this Servant Song can be best understood in the context of the entire book of Isaiah (and with the whole Bible, or course).

This song (a loose term, it's not actually meant to be sung, necessarily) begins with the end in mind. When Christ returns, He will be before all people and high and lifted up and greatly exalted. This provides a sense of assurance for the latter verses in which we will be told the awful things that will befall this Servant (that is, Christ). It's almost as if we're being told, "Before you hear all the horrible things that are going to happen, you need to know that it will all turn out fine in the end. Actually, it will turn out better than fine. It will all work perfectly for the glory of My Son."

The phrase marred more than any man refers to the great torture that Jesus endured. It was so extreme that Jesus would not even be recognized as human and the people would be greatly astonished.

We also see here in the midst of a clear prediction of the Jewish Messiah a glimpse of God's unchanging heart for all people. For this reason, it says sprinkle many nations. Not only would the Jews receive forgiveness salvation, but people of all nations (Praise the Lord!). The term sprinkle refers to the priestly intercession that Christ would make on behalf of all who would accept the sacrifice that is going to be explained.

Essentially though, these three verses are more about the consequences of Christ's suffering than the suffering itself. The suffering itself will be further explained in the coming verses.

My Attempt at Exegesis

This week, leading up to Resurrection Sunday (Easter), I will be exegeting, or trying my best to interpret one of the Servant Song's from Isaiah, the one of Isaiah 52:13-53:12. This is the clearest prophetic prediction and reference to Christ and it is full of the grace and love of God as well as His justice in punishing His Son for our sins. This is also one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. I will be splitting the 15 verses up into groups of three, so please bear with me as I attempt to explain this passage in my own words.

Thank you.

Quote of the Week

The quote for this week comes from William Temple, archbishop of Canterbuy from 1942-44. His definition of worship is one that is both intriguing and worth long consideration. He writes:

“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to his purpose. And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”

Was Jesus a Good Man?

Though I know this has been explained in better ways by such people as C.S. Lewis, I have been thinking about this some recently and I thought I would put in my two cents.

My thesis is simply this:there are few things more intellectually dishonest than the belief that Jesus was only a good man.

Now, let me point out that the key word to this whole idea is the word only. I wholeheartedly and without any reservation affirm that Jesus was the only perfect man to walk upon this earth because in the divine mystery of it all, He was both God and man. Though He was tempted in every way that we are, He never sinned- never thought, desired, did, or refused to do anything that was contrary to the will and glory of God (Hebrews 4:15). So, in no way am I saying that Jesus was not a good man. In fact, He was the best there ever was or will be.

But what astonishes me is that so many people say that Jesus was a good man, or a moral teacher and leave it there, as if that could measure up to reality. In fact, in our culture where we are trying to be increasingly tolerant of others views and where we seek to avoid offending people at all costs, we have sacrificed truth and thereby most in America would espouse this ludicrous idea.

Why is it ludicrous? If I believe that Jesus was a good man, why do I have a problem with people who believe that He was only good? Am I just making a bigger deal out of this thing than is responsible or appropriate? I don't think so.

It really all boils down to this: Jesus did not give us the option of being thought of as a mere good moral teacher. He clearly believed that what He was saying was true, that He was the Son of God, and that He was the only way to God.

If He was not telling the truth in these instances, how could He be moral? A moral person does not lie or deceive in this nature. And if He believed that this was true, but it was not, then He was truly insane, for no sane person believes they are these things unless they are.

So this brings us to the three choices classically set out by C.S. Lewis in his famous book Mere Christianity. Lewis said that Jesus was either a "liar, lunatic, or lord". He said it this way:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would
not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a
man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must
take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or
something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and
call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about
His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

If I believed that He was a lunatic or a liar, I would delete this blog right now, cancel all future plans and "eat, drink, and be merry," for tomorrow I would definitely die. Life would be absolutely meaningless. But thankfully, I can say with full assurance and confidence that what Jesus said was and is true. He is the Son of God, the only way of salvation and life in this world and the Lord of my life.