Suffered yet Satisfied.

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Isa 53: 11

The first thing that will strike you in this verse is that the prophet Isaiah treats Jesus Christ’s trial, torture, and death simply as suffering. He sees a continuity that almost no one sees. The prophet doesn’t see the suffering servant's death as the end but is just a part of the ongoing work of the servant. Jesus was alive, died, and is alive again. It’s as if he never died, the 3 days in the grave was simply a blip. If you stand at the edge of a long field and in the middle of the field is a thin but very deep trench. You won’t see the trench; all you see is the grass leading up to the trench and the grass going from the trench to the other side of the field. Now take the Son of God, who was alive before the beginning of the world. He was alive at the time of Abraham, approximately 2000 years before Jesus the Messiah became flesh. Jesus Christ died for 3 days, was resurrected, and is now back with Father God. He is still alive two thousand years later and will be with Father God when the end of the world comes at the second coming. In this huge timespan from the beginning of time to the end of time, or even just taking the 4000 years between Abraham and now, three days is minuscule, it’s a blink of an eye. And this is how Isaiah portrays the death of Jesus Christ; an event that is not even noticeable. Jesus Christ merely suffered. 

After His suffering, the Son of God will look down and be satisfied with the results. And what were the results? The results were profound. Just before the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty believers were hiding behind closed and locked doors, fearful that they might be next to be arrested by the Romans, and next to be crucified.  However, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit transformed these fearful disciples into fearless apostles and another three thousand became believers. Then every day more were added to their number. A revolution of love had taken place where the new disciples were selling their belongings and helping others. When Stephen was stoned to death, a great persecution started which resulted in the believers fleeing from Jerusalem. Although they were fearful, nothing could stop this revolution. In fact, quite the opposite happened. The believers went everywhere and talked about Jesus their Saviour. Take for example the apostle Philip, he went down to Samaria of all places. This was the last place that any Jew would go because the Samaritans had a deep ingrained hatred for the Jews. This was like a man jumping into a lion’s den. However, Philip went there, preached, cast out demons, and healed the sick. In this hated city, there was rejoicing in the name of Jesus Christ the Jew. 

But the best was still to come, a young man, Saul who was zealous in his persecution of the new believers, was confronted by Jesus Christ, the risen Saviour, and was blinded in the confrontation. He was helped by his companions to a house in Damascus, where a man called Judas lived. Saul stayed there for three days praying to God. A man came to Judas’s house and told Saul what had happened to him, prayed for him and the blindness left him. He could see! This young man now directed all his energies into preaching the gospel instead of persecuting the believers. He went on three mission trips, planted churches, and became the most prominent believer of the whole Bible. This man who was commonly called Saul now started to use his other name, Paul. It was Paul and other apostles who through their preaching turned the world upside down. There were churches all over the whole known world and people were coming to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, the Lord looked down and was satisfied.

What does this all mean for us today? The key here is in the change of name from Saul to Paul.  The Hebrew meaning for Saul is “desired” but the Hebrew meaning for Paul is “small” or “little”.  In the first, we can see a picture of a man who is the centre of attraction a man who is desired by all. “Look at me”, I'm the big kahunas. It is all about him, it’s all about the man, Saul. But now, when he was confronted by the risen Jesus Christ, his whole outlook was changed. Now the man to be desired was Jesus Christ, the big Kahunas Jesus Christ. Do you see what happened? John the Baptist said “He (Jesus Christ) must become greater; I must become less.” When we now look back at Philip, he went to Samaria, and had the mindset of Jesus Christ must increase and he had to decrease. His own safety was now not a matter of concern, only that Jesus Christ was seen as Lord and Saviour.  

For us today, we need to take on the same attitude of Paul and Philip. Paul said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves”. Let’s follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ himself, who, “...being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Now we see Philip didn’t care about his life, now we see Paul didn’t care about his life. What mattered was Jesus Christ.

Today, let us also be like these giants who humbled themselves, for God’s glory. For it's in dying to self that we will find life and life to the full. When we value others more than ourselves, then our friends, family, and neighbours will see the God of love in us. And in a quiet moment, we will hear God saying to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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Thank you and God bless you today

Robert