October 19, 2003 - Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 10:35-45
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Hebrews 5:1-10
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Isaiah 53:4-12
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“Is There a Lamb in the House?”

Introduction

Everybody loves the lion.  Handsome, powerful, in control.  But what about the lamb?  The Lion of Judah, yes, but let us not forget the sacrificial lamb of God.  The lion leads us, but who is it that saves us?  Bleat. . .   Well… what else?  In the midst of this hurt, this brokenness, this rage, how else could it be?  “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” 

Is there a lamb in the house?. . . to understand our brokenness, to redeem our pain, to give us hope?  Isaiah 53 answers with a resounding YES.

The purpose of Isaiah’s writing was to call the wayward southern kingdom of Judah back to God and to tell of a Messiah who would redeem them.  The former united kingdom of Israel had already been divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.  The northern kingdom, bearing the namesake of the people of God, had already fallen to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.  It would be as if First Church Tosa was no more, and now all that was left was Lake Country Congregational Church in Hartland.  Okay… but sad. 

 The chapters immediately preceding Isaiah 53 speak of the hope of everlasting salvation for Israel, and of the cup of God’s wrath that stands in the way of that hope.  Chapter 53 then introduces a suffering servant who will remove the cup and open the door to the hope of salvation. 

 This Suffering Servant is the lamb in our house.  Isaiah 53 makes three proclamations concerning him.  There is a lamb in the house…

… who will come unremarkably (53:1-3)

… who will take away our sins (53:4-6)

… whose suffering is redeemed in hope (53:7-12)

The first proclamation, then, is that there is a lamb in our house who will come unremarkably. 

Body

… who will come unremarkably (53:1-3)

This section begins with a question:  “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  The message is most likely the proclamation of the Servant (a.k.a. the lamb) as found in the rest of the chapter.  The arm of the Lord is a figure of speech referring to the way that God saves us solely at his initiative.

After the “who has believed” question is asked, the rest of this section explains why the answer to the question is, “Not very many.”  Not very many will believe because because the lamb will come unremarkably.    This is why the Apostle Paul, quoting Isaiah 53, writes in his letter to the Romans:

NIV Romans 10:16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

The circumstances of his coming (v. 2a)

The lamb would come unremarkably first because of the circumstances of his coming.  V. 2 describes the Suffering Servant growing up “like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.”[1]  The image here is of a giant cedar tree which has fallen, leaving only a stump and is meant to be a metaphor of the Davidic monarchy which would come crashing down.  Hope is dashed.  Or is it?  What’s that there?  That little shoot, rising out of the stump?  As Isaiah puts it earlier in 11:1: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.”  (Jesse, remember was King David’s father).    

Returning then to our text, we read in v. 2 about some ‘dry ground’.  This refers to the miserable character of the circumstances into which this servant will come.  He would come into a nation divided, degraded, and enslaved.  Yet while given up to the power of the world, and while enduring the consequent misery, these people had no idea as to the cause of their misery because of their own spiritual blindness.  How fortunate that we never suffer likewise!  The Apostle John quotes Isaiah chapters 53 and 6 to describe the obstinance and blindness of the Jews of Jesus day and to claim that Isaiah himself saw Jesus glory:

NIV John 12:37 Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" 39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn-- and I would heal them." 41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

The manner of his coming (v. 2b-3)

In addition to being unremarkable because of the circumstances of his coming, the lamb would also be unremarkable because of the manner of his coming.  No money and power here.  Who wants to pay attention to a nobody who is suffering?  Verse 3:

NIV Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

The point, once again, is that there is a lamb in the house who will come unremarkably.  Yet what does this mean for us today?  First, God’s ways are not our ways.  Don’t be fooled by appearances.  Tony Robbins, as good as he looks and sounds, will not save you from the wrath of God.  Wrath?  Oh my, that’s not loving talk.  Yes it is, if one is concerned about recognizing evil and dysfunction where they exist, and about redeeming the pathology they leave behind.  God takes care of his business, and his business is us.   God’s strength is not shown in bluster, but in humility, suffering, and mercy that is effective in saving and changing our lives for his glory. 

Second, we must decide whether what remains unremarkable for many will remain unremarkable for us.  Will we remain with blinded spiritual eyes and deadened spiritual hearts?  Or will we see the Lamb in the house, turn in repentance of our wills, that we might be saved? 

To sum up the first proclamation of Isaiah 53, there is a lamb in the house who will come unremarkably.  We turn then from vv. 1-3 to vv. 4-6 where we find a second proclamation.  There is a lamb in the house who will take away our sins.

… who will take away our sins (53:4-6)

To understand this paragraph we must understand three important ideas: sin, atonement, and substitution. 

First, what actually is sin?  To sin means literally to miss the mark or to fall short.  We as human beings have fallen short of God’s standard of holiness.  We are alienated from God as if a giant chasm has opened between us and him.  There is with this a brokenness at the core of our being that also alienates us from our own selves. 

The second idea we must understand is atonement.  Atonement in the biblical sense involves the satisfaction of the requirements of God’s justice in order to reconcile us to God.  In Leviticus 16 God instructs Aaron that he is to enter the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle they have just constructed only once per year on what was designated the Day of Atonement.  He was to sacrifice several animals as God indicated.  Why would a loving God require something as repulsive as animal sacrifice?  Answer - Lev. 17:11:

NIV Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

The third idea then is substitution.  As part of the Day of Atonement, Aaron was to send a goat into the desert to carry away Israel’s sins as a substitute (scapegoat) for them:

NIV Leviticus 16:20 "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites-- all their sins-- and put them on the goat's head.  He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

God in his justice cannot let our sin go unpunished, yet God in his grace cannot let our sin go without provision, so he provided a substitute for us in his Son.  This is the point of our well-known gospel summary, John 3:16:

NIV John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Putting then the ideas of sin, atonement, and substitution together, the traditional understanding of the church is that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross provided substitutionary atonement for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God.  Verses 5 and 6 sums it up vividly and are often considered the key verses of the entire book of Isaiah:

NIV Isaiah 53:5 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. 6 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.

Will we, however, personally appropriate that which our Heavenly Father has extended to us?  If it is really true that Christ is the lamb of God in our house who has come to take away our sins, the appropriate response is obvious: to give ourselves to him unreservedly in repentance and thanksgiving.  All we need do is say simply with our lives, “I believe.” 

There is a lamb in the house, who will come unremarkably, and who will take away our sins.  There remains for us then a third and final proclamation to consider in vv. 7-12.  There is a lamb in the house …

… whose suffering will be redeemed in hope (53:7-12)

This last section proclaims that the Lamb’s suffering will be redeemed in hope.  This is very good news for us because one of the implications is that our suffering can find redemption along with the Lamb’s. 

Verses 7-9 focus on the Lamb’s suffering.  Verse 7 says, “he was oppressed and afflicted.”  ‘Oppressed’ refers to the fact that those in judgment over the Lamb used their authority inappropriately.  We have an amazing propensity for hurling insults at one another.  We also have an amazing propensity for retaliating when others hurl insults at us.  The wise ones among us can do this with a certain sanctified subterfuge.  This is the Congregational Way on its darker days.  Jesus neither hurled insults, nor retaliated when insults were hurled at him.

“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, he did not open his mouth.”  (Isaiah 53:7)

The Apostle Peter was adamant that the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 was Jesus, and that in what Jesus did, he not only saved us, but provided an example for us to follow:

NIV 1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.[2]

While vv. 7-9 focus on the lamb’s suffering, verses 10-12 then show how that suffering is redeemed in hope.  Verse 10 says that it was the Father’s will that his own Son suffer, yet not out of cruelty or indifference, but rather out of love for the wandering sheep that we are.

Verse 11 says that the Lamb’s suffering will be redeemed in that he will see the light of life (or, as the RSV puts it, “the fruit of the travail of his soul”) and justify many.  The Apostle Paul therefore says of Jesus in Romans 4:25:  “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

V. 12 says the Lamb’s suffering will be further redeemed in that he will be honored for pouring out his life for us.  This is what Jesus refers to at the Last Supper (Matt. 26:27-28):

NIV Matthew 26:27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."

The next clause of v. 12 says that the Lamb’s suffering will be further redeemed in that he will bear away our sin.  Jesus accomplished in fact what was only anticipated in shadow form in the Old Testament law and sacrifices.  Listen to what the author to the Hebrews, trying to understand things afresh in light of the historical reality of the Resurrection, has to say in the following excerpts from Heb. 9:11 – 10:4:

NIV Hebrews 9:11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

NIV Hebrews 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Finally, in the last clause of v. 12, we see that the Lamb’s suffering will be redeemed in that he is now “making intercession for the transgressors.”   The Apostle Paul sees this also fulfilled in Jesus based on what he writes in Romans chapter 8 about our being more than conquerors in Christ Jesus:

NIV Romans 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? …  Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Suffering is a very difficult topic for us.  We don’t like it.  We don’t want to think about it.  Yet can we see this morning that suffering redeemed can be our hope as well.  Our friends in Russia endured a lot of suffering.  Yet to be with them in those moments where together we saw Jesus moving to redeem that suffering in the hope we have in him was truly remarkable.  A smile on the face of an American comes easily and sometimes means little.  A smile on the face of a Russian comes very dearly and often means much.  Because the Lamb’s suffering was redeemed in hope, there is hope for our suffering as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what I’ve said to you this morning is that there is a Lamb in the house:

… who will come unremarkably (53:1-3)

… who will take away our sins (53:4-6)

… whose suffering is redeemed in hope (53:7-12)

What response does Isaiah 53 call for from us?  It calls us to acknowledge our own brokenness, to thank our Heavenly Father for delivering us from this brokenness through Jesus Christ, and finally to offer our lives in return for all that the Father has done for us through his one and only Son. 

Dear brothers and sisters, there is a lamb in the house!  Hallelujah.  Amen.