Isaiah 50:6

OUR SAVIOUR’S SUBMISSION TO SHAME AND SUFFERING

Isaiah 50:6. I gave my back to the smiters, &c.

It was for us that our Lord thus submitted to shame and suffering. May a spirit of tenderness, and thankfulness, and love, be given to us while we remember what He endured on our behalf!

I. OUR LORD’S HUMILIATION WAS VOLUNTARY.

He gave Himself up freely to suffer, the just for the unjust. And while He was upon earth, in pursuance of His designs, He never was at the mercy of His foes (Matthew 26:53). His sufferings were the unavoidable result of His voluntary determination to save us. And they were all foreseen. For the accomplishment of two great purposes, He cheerfully gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that pulled off the hair. These were the glory of God, and the salvation of sinners.

1. The highest end of His mediation was to display the glory of the Divine character in the strongest light, to afford to all intelligent creatures (Ephesians 3:10) the brightest manifestation they are capable of receiving of the manifold wisdom of God—His holiness, justice, truth, and love, the stability and excellence of His moral government, all mutually illustrating each other, as combining and shining forth in His person and in His mediatorial work. [1541]

[1541] See Watts’ great hymn—

“Father, how wide Thy glory shines!”

2. Inseparably connected with this design, was the complete and everlasting salvation of sinners. For their sakes He endured the cross, despising the shame—for us! (P. D. 456, 457, 459). [1544]

[1544] See the well-known hymn—

“Jesus, and can it ever be?”

II. OUR LORD’S HUMILIATION WAS EXTREME.
In the apprehensions of men, insults are aggravated in proportion to the disparity between the person who receives and who offers them. A blow from an equal is an offence, but would be still more deeply resented from an inferior. But if a subject, a servant, a slave, should presume to strike a king, it would be justly deemed an enormous crime. But Jesus, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, whom all the angels of God worship, made Himself so entirely of no reputation, that the basest of the people were not afraid to make Him the object of their derision, and to express their hatred in the most contemptuous manner.

1. They spat upon Him (Matthew 26:66; Matthew 27:30). Great as an insult of this kind would be deemed amongst us, it was considered as still greater, according to the customs prevalent in Eastern countries. There, to spit even in the presence of a person, though it were only on the ground, conveyed the idea of disdain and abhorrence. But the lowest of the people spat in the face—not of an Alexander or a Cæsar—but of THE SON OF GOD!

2. They buffeted Him on the face, and when He meekly offered His cheek to their blows, they plucked off the hair. The beard was in the East accounted honourable (2 Samuel 10:4). With savage violence they tore off the hair of His beard; while He, like a sheep before the shearers, was dumb, and quietly yielded Himself up to their outrages.

3. His back they tore with scourges, as was foretold by the psalmist (Psalms 129:3). The Jewish Council condemned Him to death for blasphemy, because He said He was the Son of God. Stoning was the punishment prescribed by the law of Moses, in such cases (Leviticus 14:16). But this death was not sufficiently lingering and tormenting to gratify their malice. To glut their insatiable cruelty, they were therefore willing to own their subjection to the Roman power to be so absolute, that it was not lawful for them to put any one to death (John 17:26), according to their own judicial law; and thus wilfully, though unwillingly, they fulfilled the prophecies: they preferred the punishment which the Romans appropriated to slaves who were guilty of flagitious crimes, and therefore insisted that He should be crucified. According to the Roman custom, those who were crucified were previously scourged. It was not unfrequent for the sufferers to expire under the severity and torture of scourging. And we may be certain that Jesus experienced no lenity from their merciless hands. The ploughers ploughed His back. But more and greater tortures were before Him. He was engaged to make a full atonement for human sin by His sufferings; and as He had power over His own life, He would not dismiss His spirit until He could say, “It is finished!”

“Behold the Man!” Behold the Son of God mocked, blindfolded, spit upon, and scourged!

1. Shall we continue in sin, after we know what it cost Him to expiate our sins? God forbid! (H. E. I. 4589, 4590.)
2. Shall we refuse to suffer shame for His sake, and be intimidated by the frowns or contempt of men from avowing our attachment to Him? We are, indeed, capable of this baseness and ingratitude. But if He is pleased to strengthen us by the power of His Spirit, we will account such disgrace our glory. In this, as in all things, let our Lord be our exemplar. Let us neither court the smiles of men, nor shrink at the thought of their displeasure. Let it be our constant aim to glorify God. This is the secret of Christian heroism. True magnanimity is evidenced by the real importance of the end it proposes, and by the steadiness with which it pursues the proper means of attaining that end; undisturbed by difficulty, danger, or pain, and equally indifferent to the applause or the scorn of incompetent judges. How gloriously did it shine forth in our Saviour! In this let us strive to follow Him!—John Newton: Works, pp. 706–709.

Messiah’s sufferings and supports. I. His sufferings.

1. They were great and various.
2. He willingly undertook to sustain them all (H. E. I. 913). II. His supports.

1. Assurance of effectual succour (Isaiah 50:7).

2. Assurance of a triumphant issue (Isaiah 50:7).

Contemplate the holy sufferer—

1. As the predicted Saviour of the world.
2. As the great pattern of all holy obedience.—Charles Simeon, M.A.

Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other? It is quite certain that Isaiah here wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 8:31). Of whom else could you conceive the prophet to have spoken if you read the whole chapter? (Luke 23:11.) Pilate, the governor, gave Him up to the cruel process of scourging. Behold your King! Turn hither all your eyes and hearts, and look upon the despised and rejected of men! The sight demands adoration.

I. Gaze upon your despised and rejected Lord as THE REPRESENTATIVE OF GOD. In Him God came into the world, making a special visitation to Jerusalem and the Jewish people, but at the same time coming very near to all mankind. He came to and called the people whom He had favoured so long, and whom He was intent to favour still (Isaiah 50:2).

1. When our Lord came into this world as the representative of God, He came with all His divine power about Him. He fed the hungry, &c. He did equal marvels to those which were wrought in Egypt when the arm of the Lord was made bare in the eyes of all the people. He did the works of His Father, and those works bare witness of Him that He was come in His Father’s name.

2. But when God thus came among men He was unacknowledged (Isaiah 50:2). A few, taught by the Spirit of God, discerned Him and rejoiced; but they were so very few that we may say of the whole generation that they knew Him not.

3. Yet our Lord, when He came into the world, was admirably adapted to be the representative of God, not only because He was God Himself, but because as man His whole human nature was consecrated to the work, and in Him was neither flaw nor spot. His course and conduct were most conciliatory, for He went among the people, and ate with publicans and sinners; so gentle was He that He took little children in His arms, and blessed them; for this, if for nothing else, they ought to have welcomed Him right heartily, and rejoiced at the sight of Him. This is especially the sin of those who have heard the Gospel and yet reject the Saviour, for in their case the Lord has come to them in the most gracious form, and yet they have refused Him. This is in reality a scorning and despising of the Lord God, and is well set forth by the insults which were poured upon the Lord Jesus.

II. See the Lord Jesus as THE SUBSTITUTE FOR HIS PEOPLE. When He suffered thus, it was not on His own account, nor purely for the sake of His Father; but He was “wounded for our transgressions,” &c. There has risen up a modern idea which I cannot too much reprobate, that Christ made no atonement for our sin except upon the cross: whereas in this passage we are taught as plainly as possible that by His bruising and stripes, as well as by His death, we are healed. Never divide between the life and the death of Christ. How could He have died, if He had not lived? How could He suffer except while He lived? Death is not suffering, but the end of it. Guard also against the evil notion that you have nothing to do with the righteousness of Christ, for He could not have made an atonement by His blood, if He had not been perfect in His life. He could not have been acceptable, if He had not first been proven to be holy, harmless, and undefiled. The victim must be spotless, or it cannot be presented for sacrifice. Draw no nice lines and raise no quibbling questions, but look at your Lord as He is, and bow before Him. Jesus took upon Himself our sin, and being found bearing that sin, He had to be treated as sin should be treated. All this was voluntary. “He gave His back to the smiters.” They did not seize and compel Him, or, if they did, yet they could not have done it without His consent. That Christ should stand in our stead by force were a little thing, even had it been possible; but that He should stand there of His own free will, and that being there He should willingly be treated with derision, this is grace indeed. Here is matter for our faith to rest upon.

III. See the Lord Jesus Christ as THE SERVANT OF GOD. He took upon Himself the form of a servant when He was made in the likeness of man. This is to be the guide of our life.

1. As a servant, Christ was personally prepared for service. He was thirty years and more here below, learning obedience in His Father’s house, and the after years were spent in learning obedience by the things which He suffered.
2. Our text assures us that this service knew no reserve in its consecration. We generally draw back somewhere. Our blessed Master was willing to be scoffed at by the lewdest and the lowest of men. Such patience should be yours as servants of God.
3. Beside, there was an obedient delight in the will of the Father. How could He delight in suffering and shame? These things were even more repugnant to His sensitive nature than they can be to us; and yet, “For the joy,” &c.
4. There was no flinching in Him. Notice all the while the confidence and quiet of His spirit? He almost seems to say, “You may spit upon me, but you cannot find fault with me,” &c.

IV. AS THE COMFORTER OF HIS PEOPLE.

1. Our blessed Lord is well qualified to speak a word in season to him that is weary, because He Himself is lowly, and meek, and so accessible to us.
2. Beside, He is full of sympathy.
3. Then there is His example. “I gave my back,” &c. Cannot you do the like? &c. He was calm amid it all. Never was there a patience like to His. This is your copy.

4. Our Saviour’s triumph is meant to be a stimulus and encouragement. “Consider Him that endured,” &c. (Hebrews 12:3). Though once abased and despised, now He sitteth at the right hand of God, and reigns over all things; and the day is coming when every knee shall bow before Him, &c. Be like Him, then, ye who bear His name; trust Him, and live for Him, and you shall reign with Him in glory for ever.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1486.