Some More Relating

Amidst my struggle to figure out what in the world to do my sermon outline on (it's due tomorrow but the professor will take it by the end of next week) I was looking through Isaiah to figure something out. Isn't it crazy how this collection of 66 books known as the Bible can open your eyes to a lot of new thoughts, understandings, and perspectives? Besides the fact that when you read it, it changes your whole thought process on certain things you have come to understand and things you have known to be true. In these events, new information is earth shattering and perplexes even the most secure in their knowledge. I came across a passage in Isaiah that did that for me and I have been dwelling on the meaning of it for the past week. It comes out of the 53rd chapter and humbles me into a new understanding of the prophecy that talked about the coming Messiah.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:4-7

Think about when you're accused of something or an accusation is made against you. Most people (when I say most I mean me) take a quick offence and get defensive and try to make a case for why they did no wrong or committed no act of sin. Jesus was accused of so many things, put on trial for crimes he hadn't committed, and was crucified, bled, and died for sins that he had no part of. Yet he did not even open his mouth. He didn’t make one excuse; he just took it. To some, that may seem stupid. To some, we call that love.

Just something to think about...