Reflections on Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
By Betsy Wergin
(From the May 2009 Issue of the Philogian)

Betsy submitted this paper as part of the course work in Old Testament: Poets and Prophets, at our Village Schools class conducted at Bethel Reformed Church in Princeton, MN.  The lesson was over Isaiah 40-66.  She began her paper this way:

“As I read the passages for this week’s lesson the familiarity of them actually got in the way of hearing what they had to say to me.  I did not want it to be that way.  I looked over the suggestions for essay topics and decided to do something quite different for this essay.  Sometimes when I do my private devotions I will rewrite the passage into the words spoken to me in the words of the Bible.  That is what I will do this week.  So, following you will find Isaiah 52:13-53:12 as interpreted by me from reading the New International and King James Versions of the Bible.”

“Jesus will live wisely and carefully, He will be respected by many who meet and know Him.  In spite of that He will be beaten to a point of near non-recognition by those that are threatened by His wisdom and right living.  He will barely look human when they are through taking their hatred out on Him.

“Oddly, kings will wonder what to do with Him.  They will not want to take sides between His followers and those that hate Him.  How political is that!  The kings will have heard all of the stories and gossip and truly not know what to make of it.  When they see Him before them they will be mystified because they will see things in Him that are well beyond what they have heard.  As a matter of fact, seeing Him will make them very uncomfortable and fill them with questions about both what they have heard and what they see in front of them.

“There seems to be something so special about Him.  It’s odd, who can figure Him out?  There was certainly nothing special about His family or upbringing.  He was as common as the rest of the people who lived in the neighborhood.  He’s not all that good looking, just ordinary.  Who gets it?  What is it that makes even the most knowledgeable wonder what Jesus is about?

“Constantly picked on, laughed at, made fun of.  Actually hated is probably the right word.  Nobody wants to hang around with Him; they don’t even want to be seen with Him.  Smart, yeah, very smart but nobody seems to care about that at all.  As a matter of fact that seems to make people mad at Him.

“Jesus seems to care about us.  He cried when He came to the tomb of Lazarus.  He brought the widow’s son back to life.  Look at all the people He healed from everything you can imagine.  Even God doesn’t seem to care for Him that much; at least that is how we see it.  God never intervenes on His behalf.

“He took it and took it and took it for us and from us.  Slapped around, beaten, stabbed, pushed and everything else.  It’s like He’s doing it for me.  I wonder how far He would let it go?  Would He let them kill Him for me?  Why does that give me a peaceful feeling?

“It was a never ending cycle.  Jesus just kept coming back for more.  He never complained.  He never said a word.  It was finally too much. He’ll never have kids; He’s dead.  They killed Him.  No, wait; I killed Him, didn’t I?  I never came to the rescue.  I never stood up for Him.  I never put in a good word for Him.  When the going got tough I left, just left.  I’m the one who did everything wrong.  He stepped up and took the punches for me.  He never did a thing wrong, not one thing.

“God, why did You let it happen this way?  Was it because You knew I was incapable of handling it myself?  You know absolutely everything, don’t You?  You knew He’d live again and I will too because Jesus did.”

Betsy then completed her paper with these words:
“There really are no adequate words to capture the essence of this chapter.  Especially when you consider that it was written so very long before it all really took place.  Here I am over 2000 years later and I know full well what took place with Jesus.  I know the whole story.  Jesus did take it all for me.

“When I think of being beaten beyond recognition, how do you write about that?  I have a picture in my mind but it’s not enough.  Crowds shouting, ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him,’ what would that feel like?  ‘Kill her, kill her, in the worst way possible’; my mind can’t even grasp a crowd of people shouting that about me.  I deserve it; Jesus didn’t.

“I am a mother.  I cannot even fathom allowing one of my children to die for someone that is not even born yet.  God did that for me!  He allowed His son to die for me!  Jesus didn’t fight it either.  No matter what they did, what I did, Jesus let it happen without an argument in His own defense or without even telling anyone He was innocent.

“There is no way to wrap your physical or mental self around it.  It has to be an embrace of the heart.  If you can be fully transformed by the love a Jesus-kind-of-sacrifice evokes, maybe there doesn’t need to be a picture.”

Thank you, Betsy, for sharing from your heart.  And thank you for reminding us of this precious gift of salvation that was purchased at such an incredible price. 

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