The Servant’s Song
(Isa 42:1-4 ESV) Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
(Isa 42:6-7 ESV) 6 “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
(Isa 49:8-10 ESV) 8 Thus says the LORD: “In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, 9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; 10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
Isaiah looks forward to the day when the good news is published: “Your God reigns”!
(Isa 52:7-12 ESV) 7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen–they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 11 Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
(Isa 52:14-15 ESV) 14 As many were astonished at you — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind — 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
(Isa 53:2-12 ESV) 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah sees a day when Israel becomes the light of the world —
(Isa 62:1-3 ESV) For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. 2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
N. T. Wright on the Servant’s Song
In a fascinating essay, “The Servant and Jesus: The Relevance of the Colloquy for the Current Quest for Jesus,” N. T. Wright explains much of the meaning of the latter chapters of Isaiah to provide a better understanding of Jesus’ work on the cross.
[W]e have failed to take seriously, I believe, the very passage that sums up the whole of Jesus’ public ministry, Isaiah 52:7-12. “How lovely upon the mountains are the feet of the mebasser, the herald of good tidings, the one who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns!” Astonishingly, the concordance worship that has characterized so much New Testament scholarship has sometimes meant that this passage hasn’t been considered relevant, because it doesn’t use the phrase “Kingdom of God”; but that is obviously what it means. And when Zion’s God becomes king, three things will happen, according to this short and pregnant passage. The exile will end at last, with a purified people returning home; evil will be defeated, as Babylon falls at last; and, most important, Yahweh himself will return to Zion.
You see, the Exile didn’t end when Ezra and Nehemiah brought a Jewish remnant to Jerusalem, because the promises God made through Isaiah and later prophets weren’t yet fulfilled. The Exile lasted until Jesus came.
The other great theme is, of course, forgiveness of sins. Here I want to stress a point which seems to me vital, and regularly overlooked. From the exile to Bar Kochba, and arguably beyond, exile itself was seen as the punishment for sins; so forgiveness of sins was another way of saying “end of exile.” We who live in the shadow of the medieval church, of Martin Luther, of soul-searching pietism, and now of navel-gazing self-help spiritualities, have to make a huge historical effort of the imagination to get this right. Read Daniel 9, Ezekiel 34-37, Jeremiah 31, and above all Isaiah 40-55, and you will see that if exile is the result of sin, return from exile simply is the forgiveness of sins.
Don’t doubt for a moment that forgiveness of sins is a matter of an individual’s right relationship with God, but the Biblical doctrine is much, much larger!
Forgiveness, in other words, in this period isn’t first and foremost a matter of private piety, of the individual wrestling with a troubled conscience. If you’re in prison, being granted an amnesty doesn’t mean you can feel good inside yourself. It means you are free to go home. This is all summed up in a little verse in Lamentations, 4:22: “The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer.” Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom, therefore, and his regular offer of forgiveness of sins, mean, in effect: this is how exile is ending! This is how God is becoming King! This is how evil is defeated! This is how Yahweh is returning to Zion! This, I submit, is thoroughly historically grounded and believable within Jesus’ world. Lots of other first-century Jews thought they knew how God was becoming King, and thought they themselves would be key instruments of that kingship. Jesus belongs on that map.
God can’t be king unless his people are forgiven, because sin separates man from God. The Kingdom can’t come unless it’s preceded by forgiveness. The Spirit can’t be outpoured into the unredeemed. The unredeemed can’t be a temple for God, a light to the nations. Forgiveness brings the individual into right relationship for sure, but it also moves heaven and earth closer together. It allows God to enter more fully into his Creation and change his people to be obedient. It allows God’s reign to be more fully realized, as God reigns most fully in the hearts of the redeemed!
I believe, therefore, that Jesus did not consider his own death in terms of an abstract or ahistorical atonement theology. He did not think of himself going to his death in order to set in motion a piece of celestial mechanics whereby a timeless system of purely spiritual salvation would be set up. He saw himself as possessed of the awesome vocation to bring Israel’s history to its climax; to be the means of ending exile at last, of defeating paganism as a good Messiah should do, and of overturning the renegade and faithless Judaism that was still occupying center stage. He saw himself as being called upon not merely to announce, but more importantly to enact, the end of exile, the return of Yahweh to Zion, in other words, the forgiveness of sins.
In other words, Jesus did not come merely to set up a system of individual salvation. He came to change the world — a change that requires individual salvation but isn’t just about that. Modern evangelicals try to reduce salvation to “say a prayer” or “get baptized” and then you go to heaven when you die. But it’s also about changing the world, to no longer be ruled by Babylon, Rome, or whatever other earthly power there may be, and to instead be ruled by God himself. It’s about the coming of the Kingdom — God’s reign.
The problem with a crucified Messiah is not that there happens to be one text in Deuteronomy which says a hanged man is accursed. That could only be imagined when we have left history behind and entered into a world of pure abstract ideas. The problem with a crucified Messiah is that the true Messiah was supposed to defeat the pagans, not to be executed by them.
Paul wrestles constantly with the fact that Jesus was crucified. The Messiah was supposed to sit on David’s throne and defeat all opposing armies, bringing peace and prosperity to Israel. But Jesus was killed by the Romans.
It is within this world, I suggest and propose, that we must ask the question of Jesus’ relation to Isaiah 53. Of course, if we are looking for a bit of detached teaching with an Old Testament background in which Jesus will say “look, I am the Servant of Isaiah 53,” we will look in vain. … Jesus made Isaiah 52:7-12 thematic for his Kingdom announcement. He lived within the controlling story according to which Israel’s long and tangled relationship with her God, and with the gentile world, would reach a great climax through which exile would be undone, so that Israel’s sins would be forgiven at last, and the whole world would see the glory of God. He spoke of this in terms of Daniel, Zechariah, and other passages. But if we ask how the message of Isaiah 52:7-12 is put into effect, the prophecy as Jesus read it had a clear answer. The arm of Yahweh, which will be unveiled to redeem Israel from exile and to put evil to flight, is revealed, according to Isaiah 53:1, in and through the work of the Servant of Yahweh.
Wright concludes,
Within this hypothesis, I have suggested that Isaiah 40-55 as a whole was thematic for Jesus’ ministry and Kingdom announcement, which is to be understood not in terms of the teaching of an abstract and timeless system of theology, not even of atonement theology, but as the historical and concrete acting-out of the return of Yahweh to Zion to defeat evil and to rescue his people from exile, that is, to forgive their sins at last. Within this notion, in turn, I have suggested that the allusions to Isaiah 53 are not, in fact, the basis of a theory about Jesus’ self-understanding in relation to his death; they may be, rather, the telltale signs of a vocation which he could hardly put into words, that the mebasser of Isaiah 52:7 (and Isaiah 40:9) would turn out to be himself, the Servant, representing the Israel that was called to be the light of the world but had failed so signally in this vocation.
Israel was supposed to be the light of the world, but as Paul argues in Romans, it failed. As a result, God — through Jesus — honored Israel’s part of the covenant, becoming the light of the world for them. We’ll consider the significance of this further in the next post of this series.
Jay, thank you for your post and this wonderful study on Isaiah! I appreciate your inclusion of N.T. Wright's work on the subject. I have been somewhat hesitant to use any of is work in my own ministry due to a lot of controversy that circulates his teaching, especially with the propagation of the Emergent Church as led by Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church. Although I like a lot of things that N.T. Wright teaches, I am wondering how to reconcile his teachings with conventional Christian thought — especially those teachings concerning heaven and hell. I would very much like your input on the use of N.T. Wright's material in sermons, teachings, etc. Do you approach his teachings with a "filter" or do you find much of what he says and writes to be spot on?
Tony,
Wright has written huge volumes of material, and I doubt many would agree with it all. But his work has been on the whole extremely beneficial to the church and has moved serious theology in a much more conservative direction.
Personally, I can give at least some credit to Wright for changing my views on —
* The importance of reading the NT in light of OT — indeed, just how the OT and NT are connected.
* The critical importance of the Abrahamic covenant in understanding the new covenant.
* The importance of kingdom theology and narrative hermeneutics.
* The nature of the new heavens and new earth.
* The “legalism” of the Jews.
* The importance of the resurrection.
I could go on. All his books are worth the read. I disagree with him on a few things, including his understanding of the nature of hell.
Those who consider him “liberal” don’t understand him. In fact, his genius is pushing theology in a much more conservative direction overall — as he refutes many theories that take a dim view of the historicity of the Gospels or that suggest Paul and Jesus preached two different Christianities. He’s also refuted the old lie that the early church expected Jesus to return soon and had to rewrite their theology when he didn’t. His scholarship is so masterful that he’s send a lot of 20th Century liberal theology into the dustbin of history.
Do some emerging church leaders build their theologies on Wright? Some do. Some do so accurately and some depart from his teaching. But Wright is not himself an emerging church guy. Until recently, he was an Anglican bishop. overseeing an Anglican diocese in the United Kingdom. He retired to focus on his writing just recently.
Of course, some of what the emerging church teaches is right and a needed corrective. There are multiple emerging church streams, and some are healthier than others. Wright is not in any of them, but they all read him. But so do most of the Bible professors at the Church of Christ universities — at least, the good ones do.
So, yes, you should read his stuff and decide for yourself. If he seems just too crazy to be believed, work through the texts yourself and try to disprove him. You’ll find he wins more of those tests than he loses. Even when he’s wrong, you’ll learn a lot just engaging his arguments.
Finally, ignore nearly all criticisms of him. Most are ignorant or driven by identity. Hence, John Piper condemns Wright for daring not to be a TULIP Calvinist. But neither is he an Arminian. He doesn’t even try to engage the Reformation-era issues. As he should, he interprets in light of the First Century and earlier texts to see what the original authors wanted to say — and they weren’t arguing for or against Calvin or, for that matter, Alexander Campbell.
I find it very refreshing to read material that isn’t cluttered and filtered by denominational touchstones and just tries to see what the Bible really has to say.
In some churches, you may not want to mention him by name, but you should have several of his books in your library. I might start with —
Simply Christian
Surprised by Hope
Justification (a little harder, but really good)
What Saint Paul Really Said (will rock your world — but then, so will the others)
If you love these, then you might try some of his longer, more scholarly books. But these are not for the faint of heart. Nonetheless, they are richly rewarding. Start with the Christian Origins and the Question of God series. Each volume is huge, but … oh, wow!