The Flagellation of our Lord Jesus Christ, by William Adolphe Bouguereau [c.1890]
But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that gave us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
He was oppressed, and he was humiliated, but he did not open His mouth;
for he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
They placed his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;
because he had done no violence, with no deceit in his mouth.
Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The Righteous One, my servant, shall justify many; and their iniquities he himself shall bear.
–an excerpt from Isaiah 53 (emphasis added)
These words are worth contemplating as we memorialize once again the holy Passion of Jesus. This is the very passage which the Holy Spirit used––via a series of extraordinary events that you can read about in the book of Acts, chapter 8––to introduce the Gospel to the continent of Africa several chapters ahead of the missionary endeavor to Europe (which does not commence until Acts 16). On the return journey from Jerusalem to his own country, a man whom we know simply as the “Ethiopian eunuch” was reading this text and was confounded by the question, “Is the prophet here speaking of himself or someone else?” Philip the Evangelist answered him by affirming that this passage speaks about Jesus the Messiah, the Suffering Servant of the book of Isaiah. One of the ways we know that this text is about Jesus is because of the word “light” which I have highlighted in the translation above.
In modern English, we use the expression “see the light” to communicate figuratively the idea of recognizing or realizing the truth. But in ancient Israel, the expression “to see light” was used in a literal way to communicate the idea of being alive as opposed to either unborn or dead (see Job 3:16; Psa 36:10, 49:20). In the book of Isaiah, the prophet takes great pains to communicate to the reader that the Suffering Servant will suffer, die, and be buried (v.10), but then afterward will be alive again and “see light.” In other words, the prophet foretells the story of the resurrection of Messiah, not with a grand flourish but with a common figure of speech. That is God’s way, is it not? We might have missed it had not Jesus pointed out to his disciples (and the Holy Spirit to us) that the Hebrew Scriptures prophesied that the Messiah would both die and rise again.
Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures; and he said to them, “Thus was it written for Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sin to be proclaimed to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things” (Luke 24:45-48, emphasis added).
Yes, Jesus, we are witnesses. Thanks be to God.
Jesus Christ: God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God; the Light of the World, prepared for all the world to see, for the enlightening of nations; He who descends into the earth like the sun and ascends into heaven with the dawning of a new day, a new age, a new covenant of peace between God and humankind. By His light we see light. By His wounds we are healed. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We eat His flesh, broken for us; and we drink His blood, the cup of our salvation.
For we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Reading the Old Testament 