“He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. BY Hisknowledge
My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).
THE ATLANTIC magazine asked its readers the following question: «What crime most changed the course of history?» Someone answered it had been thea assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, a crime that triggered the First World War and set the grounds for the Second World War. Someone else replied it had been the Boston Tea Party. In 1773, a group of settlers dumped overboard the tea shipments of the British East Indian Company; this crime caused the British to toughen their laws against the North American British colonies, which made the colonies rebel and led to the United States of America being founded.* However, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah tells us about the atrocities of the most horrible crime that has ever been committed on earth; a crime that changed the history not only of this planet, but of the whole universe.
According to the prophet, Jesus was despised and rejected; He bore our diseases and suffered our pain; ”He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (verse 5). The apostle Peter says, “For the Messiah also suffered for sins once for all, an innocent person for the guilty, so that he could bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18, ISV).
He suffered although He was innocent! And He suffered so that those of us who are wicked would have access to God’s throne. That unjust death opened the path of life to those of us who actually deserved to die. And at the end of Isaiah 53 we are assured that the suffering Servant “shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (verse 11).
Surely, Jesus was victim of the greatest crime that has ever affected our history: He agreed to suffer the most unfair death, the most horrible pain, the most unspeakable suffering. However, it was not in vain: He will be satisfied when He sees the change His death has brought about in our lives; He will be satisfied if we accept His sacrifice and decide to live with Him in the kingdom of heaven.
* “What Crime Most Changed the Course of History?,” The Atlantic (October 2017), p. 100.