Jesse Tree, Day 18 – Serving Through Suffering

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5–8, ESV

Read: Isaiah 53

When we think of leaders, we don’t usually picture them serving through suffering. After all, aren’t  leaders the ones in prominent positions with a host of people working to meet their very needs?

The children of Israel had known leaders like Moses and Joshua. They had known the leadership of kings and judges. Could any of these leaders be described as a suffering servant leader? In  Isaiah 53, the prophet writes about a leader to come who will be like no other.

Isaiah describes Him this way:

He had no beauty or majesty to

attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and

we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.

.. Isaiah 53: 2-4, NIV

In the previous devotional, we learned that the Messiah would be called the Prince of Peace and His kingdom would last forever. However, here, we get another view of this coming leader. Not only would there be nothing attractive about Him, but He is described as a “man of suffering” and “familiar with pain”. This leader would serve through suffering.

Have you ever wondered why the coming Messiah is described in this way? 

I don’t know about you, but I have had quite a few blows in life that caused me to suffer and know pain. This image of a messiah who understands at a very human level the hurt that we can experience in a broken world is very comforting. This messiah is going to defy the status quo. This leader will be able to identify with my suffering and with your suffering.

Even better than that, He is coming for the express purpose of “taking our pain”.  Here, Isaiah provides a preview of the cross that Jesus will carry up Golgotha Hill as a concrete symbol of all the sin losses of this world –“Surely he took up our pain”. This messiah will show us what serving through suffering looks like.

He is coming to carry the weight of all our sins on His shoulder, by choice.

REFLECT: What qualities of  the coming Messiah described in Isaiah 53 stand out to you? Why? What does it mean to serve others through suffering?