Isaiah 53 · The Lantern

The Suffering Servant

Who has believed what we heard, and the arm of the LORD — upon whom has it been revealed?

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

For it is incredible that God, the Son of God, should be spoken of and preached as having suffered these things. For this reason they are foretold by the prophets, lest any doubt should spring up in those who are about to believe.

Who has believed. Here he begins to set out the remedies against the aforesaid impediments. And first, against their sin, he promises the passion of Christ; second, against their lowering, he promises exaltation: give praise, O you barren (ch. 54); third, against their poverty, he promises free enjoyment of goods: all you that thirst (ch. 55).

And he came up like a shoot before him, and like a root from dry ground. He had no form and no splendor that we should look at him, and no appearance that we should desire him.

For this reason [it is, said], "Who shall declare His generation?" since "He is a man, and who shall recognise Him?" But he to whom the Father which is in heaven has revealed Him, knows Him, so that he understands that He who "was not born either by the will of the flesh, or by the will of man," is the Son of man, this is Christ, the Son of the living God.

For not by any means in working wonders only was He wonderful, but even when merely showing Himself, He was full of great grace; and to declare this the prophet said, "Fair in beauty beyond the children of men." And if Esaias saith, "He hath no form nor comeliness," he affirms it either in comparison of the glory of His Godhead, which surpasses all utterance and description; or…

Second, he describes the order of the deed. And first, he sets out a similitude as to his exaltation: and he shall rise up, in being born from the womb of his mother, in rising from the dead, in ascending from the earth into heaven, and into the faith of the gentiles; as a tender plant, which increases in height and is multiplied in width, above: and there shall come forth a ro…

Despised and ceasing from among men, a man of pains and known by sickness; and like one hiding the face from us, despised, and we did not reckon him.

Nor is even his death passed over in silence: on the contrary, it is referred to in the divine Scriptures, even exceedingly clearly.… He suffers it not for his own sake but for the immortality and salvation of all, and the counsels of the Jews against him and the indignities offered him at their hands.… O marvel at the loving-kindness of the Word, that for our sakes he is disho…

One of the holy Evangelists said that when our Lord's time of suffering drew near, he began to weep and grew sad. Yet by nature he was the only-begotten Word of the Father, being immune from sufferings and grief and the like.

Second, his humility is shown as to the exposing of his infirmity: that we should be desirous of him, expecting with desire that he should come as a great redeemer: behold the desired of all nations shall come (Hag 2:8).

Surely our sicknesses he himself bore, and our pains — he carried them. And we ourselves reckoned him stricken, struck by God and afflicted.

And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

"He was made flesh" seems to be equivalent to that in which it is said that he was made sin or a curse for us, not that the Lord was transmuted into either of these—for how could he? But because by taking them on him he "took away our iniquities and bore our infirmities."

Second, as to his exposed infirmity, he sets out the sign of his infirmity: truly, as true man, he has borne, suffered, our infirmities, infirmities, such as hunger and thirst, and carried our sorrows, of sense, in suffering and sadness; or, our infirmities, our sins, he has taken from us; or in our place, he has suffered punishments: he bore our sins in his body upon the tree…

And he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The discipline of our peace was upon him, and by his wound there was healing for us.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. LXX: But he was wounded for our sins, and he was weakened for our iniquities. He was wounded for our iniquities, saying in the psalm: They have dug my hands and my feet (Ps.

But he was wounded. Here he sets out the fruit of his humiliation or of his passion. And first, he assigns the moving reason: but he was, not as we thought, but wounded, by thorns, nails, and lance, for our iniquities, taking them away, he was bruised, by scourges and blows.

All of us like sheep have strayed; each has turned to his own way. And the LORD has made the iniquity of us all fall upon him.

Isaiah says [about Christ], "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all," that is, to correct our iniquities and set them right. For that reason, he alone is able to forgive our sins, he who has been appointed by the Father of all as our educator, for he alone is able to separate obedience from disobedience.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All, as it is said, have gone astray like sheep, and we are in need of God's mercy, saying in the psalm: I have strayed like a lost sheep (Ps.

Third, he shows the imminent necessity on our part, for all are sick, and thus all need a physician, and no one else can offer a sufficient remedy: for there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, for all have sinned and do need (Rom 3:22–23) penance; all we like sheep have gone astray: for you were as sheep without a shepherd (1 Pet 2:25).

He was hard pressed, and he was afflicted, and he did not open his mouth. Like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a ewe before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

[Christ] kept silent while he was concealed, because "in humility his judgment was taken away." He kept silent while he was concealed, because he was thought to be only human. But as God he will come openly; and as our God, he will not keep silent. So what about you? You were saying, "I want him to come."

He was offered. Here he shows his meekness in suffering. And first, he sets out the meekness itself, and first, as to his voluntary offering of himself: he was offered, to God the Father as a victim for us, because it was his own will: I will freely sacrifice to you (Ps 53:8[54:6]); second, as to his patient suffering: and he opened not his mouth, as if contradicting and conten…

From restraint and from judgment he was taken — and his generation, who considers it? For he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the transgression of my people, a stroke was theirs.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; not begotten of things which are not, but of Him who is the Father; not in a corporeal manner, by excision or division as Sabellius and Valentinus thought, but in a certain inexplicable and unspeakable manner, according to the words of the prophet cited above: "Who shall declare His generation?" Since that His subsiste…

He was taken away by distress and judgment. Who can describe his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the transgression of my people he was struck down. LXX: In his humility his judgment was taken away. Who will declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth? He was led away to death because of the iniquities of my people.

He was taken away from distress. The humility of his passion having been set out, here he begins to set out the glory of his exaltation, which is the reward of his passion, as it says in Philippians 2:9: for which cause, God also has exalted him.

A Grave Assigned

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his deaths — though he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT THE PROPHET ISAIAH SAYS OF CHRIST, “HE COMMITTED NO SIN,” WHILE THE APOSTLE, ON THE CONTRARY, SAYS, “HIM WHO KNEW NO SIN, HE MADE SIN FOR US” (Isa. 53:9; 2 Cor. 5:21)? — As far as the sense is concerned, the questions are different, but the words are similar: in one respect they are alike, in another they differ.

And he shall give the ungodly. Here he sets out his vindication against his persecutors. And first, he sets out their reward: and he shall give the ungodly, the Jews into the hands of the Romans, for his burial, because they had him guarded in the tomb: the wicked is delivered up for the just (Prov 21:18).

And the LORD delighted to crush him, he made him sick. If you make his soul a guilt offering, he will see seed, he will lengthen days; and the delight of the LORD in his hand will succeed.

And the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity. LXX: And the Lord desires to cleanse him from his wound. However, the Lord wanted to cleanse him from the wound that he had received from the soldier's spear. Whether to crush him in weakness and wound: of whom he himself said: Because whom you struck, they persecuted (Ps. 68:27).

"His soul will see his offspring grow." On the day after his suffering, the spiritual conception of that indescribable, indwelling birth came. The divine power was vindicated in accordance with the promises to Abraham in the undoing of death-bearing sin and the access to redemption.

If he shall lay down. Here he sets out that, through him, the justification of men was completed. And first, he sets out the reward for the sorrow of his death: if he shall lay down his life, of his own will: I lay down my life (John 10:17), he shall see a long-lived seed, until the end of the world, sons for him reborn out of the power of his death: unless the grain of wheat f…

From the labor of his soul he will see, he will be satisfied. By his knowledge my servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and their iniquities he himself will carry.

However, I will show [Marcion] the death and burial and resurrection of Christ all indicated in a single sentence of Isaiah, who says, "His sepulchre was removed from the midst of them." Now there could have been no sepulchre without death and no removal of sepulchre except by resurrection.… "He shall divide the spoil of many, because he poured out his soul to death." For here…

[David] predicted that Christ would rise again. "You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption." Isaiah expressed the same thing in a different way.

And the reward for the labor of his teaching: because his soul has labored, in preaching and discoursing, he shall see, the gentiles converted to him, and be filled, as though having what he intended: I have meat to eat which you know not (John 4:32).

Therefore I will give him a portion among the many, and with the mighty he will divide spoil — because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with transgressors; and he himself bore the sin of many, and for the transgressors he intercedes.

And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.

Hear, at least, what God says to the Jews, "As my child Isaiah walked, naked and barefoot, so shall the children of Israel walk into captivity naked and barefoot." He wishes, therefore, to remind you by your appearance that the devil held sway over you, and he brings you to the recollection of how lowly born you were before regeneration.

Therefore will I distribute. Here he sets out his victory over his enemies. And first, he sets out the subjection of the enemies: therefore will I distribute to him, as if to say: I will give him his part, very many, who will believe in him; and the spoils of the strong, that is, those held captive by demons, he shall divide, among his disciples, setting different disciples ove…

Isaiah53

The Suffering Servant

A Grave Assigned