Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.10 – March 2000

The Humiliation of God (1)

A LENTEN Sermon by Rev P Kossen

on Isaiah 53:1-3

Scripture Readings: Acts 8:26-40; Isaiah 53:1-3

Suggested Hymns: BoW 329; 84; 305; 419; 379:1,2,5,6; 136a:1

Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, boys and girls.

Do you like reading books?  Have you ever cheated when reading a book, by quickly reading the last few pages to see how it ends?  If you have a lot of reading to do, that is sometimes a good thing.  You read the first part of the book, and the last part, and you know what the story is about.

Do you know that you can learn a lot from the Bible by doing the same thing?  Many people find it hard to understand the Bible.  But let's look at the beginning and the end.  At the beginning, you get the story of creation, and of Adam and Eve, and then the very beautiful picture of God coming down, to walk in the garden in the cool of the day as was His custom.  That's a beautiful picture isn't it – of God walking on the earth with us.  But on this one day when God came down, He couldn't find Adam.  He said, “Adam, where are you?"  And you know where Adam was don't you?  Hiding in the bushes, because of his sin.

Then let us turn to the last chapters of the Bible.  You find there a very beautiful picture.  It talks again of God living with us.  But there is a very beautiful way of putting that.  The Bible says that “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  Just think about that picture for a moment.  It is very personal.  You get the picture of a child who has been away for a long time, but now has come home, and for his father to wipe away his tears, they must be hugging, or even the child is sitting on his father's knee.  And that is the message of the Bible.  It is not religion.  It is something far more personal.  It is the Creator of the world, leading us home.

I am concerned that often we can make our faith much too difficult.  I have a friend who used to be a member of our churches, and had studied his faith, but who later, said, “I no longer believe.  I want to believe, but it is all so hard."  Why can we, who know our theology so well, still sometimes struggle so much in our own faith?  And I think we can sometimes lose ourselves in all the complexities of the theological system.  We can make God seem so distant and impersonal that we lose sight of the little child crying with joy in his father's arms.  Isaiah did not preach theology, but was told to preach to the towns of Judah: "Here is your God.”  And that is what I want to do today.

1.  The arm of the Lord

Now first when you look at this passage, you will see a big contrast between verses 1 and 2.  In verse 1, Isaiah talks about the arm of the Lord.  And what is the Lord's arm?  It is a symbol of His strength.  The Bible often talks about His mighty hand and outstretched arm, and by these He gives them food, He saves them, He carries them out of Egypt.

But then in verse 2 Isaiah goes on to describe the arm of God.  The picture which follows is a terrible picture of dreadful weakness.  A tender shoot, a root in dry ground, an ugly little thing which would go on to be despised and trampled on by men.

Do you see the contrast?  How can you talk about strength and weakness in the same breath?  Is this pathetic picture, a picture of God's strength?  Is this really, the best that God can do?

2.  The description

Let's take another look at that description.  "He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  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 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.”  Now there is nothing beautiful in this description.  There is nothing powerful in it.  It is gruesome, it is horrible, it is unimaginable, it is the Hunchback of Notradame compounded a thousand times.

We are reminded of the Jesus of the Gospels who although He came unto His own, His own did not receive Him.  He was rejected of men.  He was mocked.  He was not listened to at all.  He was despised.  He was challenged.  He suffered terribly at the hands of the leaders and then was put to a gruesome death.  It was the picture of utter humiliation.  From Isaiah 52 we see that people were appalled at Him, because His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form marred beyond human likeness.

The Gospels are very brief in their description of the suffering.  They just give a simple historical account of the main events.  We may however be sure of this, that this Suffering Servant suffered terribly, a suffering that disfigured, a suffering that cut him off from his fellows.  It is the same sort of horror which we still feel today at the sight of a badly disfigured human face, horribly and irreversibly marked.  And so also people were appalled at the figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now I want you to have that picture firmly in your minds.  Because, brothers and sisters, this is your God.

Now I use the word, God, very deliberately.  You see, as Christians, as we reason our way through the Bible, we put everything into its logical compartment and can end up with this picture of the remote God out there sending His Son to do the dirty work for Him.  You have all heard this picture sometimes, Jesus in His love, stepping in to fix things up between the Father and us.  The angry God and the loving Jesus.  The remote God out there.  We need to be so careful brothers and sisters when we deal with the mystery of the Trinity.

There are two errors on this point which Christians fall into.  On the one hand, there is the heresy called Patripassionism – the idea that the Father died on the cross.  But there is a much worse and more common heresy around.  The idea that Jesus, as the Son, is less than God.  In our haste to say, that the Father did not die, we lose sight of the fact, that Jesus is co-equal, co-eternal, co-God, with the Father.  Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father."  And Jesus said, “Philip, don't you know me?  If you knew me you would know my Father.  Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?  The words I say to you are not my own, but it is the Father living in me doing His work.”

Don't ask me to explain.  The Trinity is a tremendous mystery.  But I would prefer you to believe the heresy of Patripassionism than for you to deny that Jesus Christ is Yahweh, our mighty God.

What is the point?  This terrible picture of Isaiah 53, this terrible humiliation, this terrible suffering, is Yahweh Himself.  This is your Maker.  And it is this realisation which, in chapter 52, startles men and shuts their mouths.  You see, we can deal with a remote God out there.  We can debate about His character.  We can debate theology, package it nicely and push it away.  We can cut it all up into our fine little distinctions.

And yet, somehow, all our theologising is over when we are confronted with our Maker on the cross.  There just doesn't seem to be much left that we can say.  We can't really think of God any more as the God out there who is far away.  For if that is so, what is He doing on this cross?  We can't say any more, God I don't know you, you are so remote, you are invisible.  Because here in Isaiah 53 he says, “son, what more must I do to show you who I am?  How much lower do you want me to go?  There is no lower for me to go, I have been there; and I can't show you any more clearly who I am.  Look at what I, your cold and remote God has done.  Am I remote?  Do I not care?  I am your God, and look at me.  Can't you see that?  Can you still walk away from me?  Do you still want to walk away from me?”

The humiliation of God, brothers and sisters, is the most awesome thought in the whole world.  Think of everything you know about God.  About His Majesty and Power and Glory and Holiness; His infinity and eternity; His Eternal Kingship.  Think of Him and then multiply your greatest thoughts a thousand, thousand times and you have not begun to imagine the essence and greatness and power and majesty of God.  He is utterly awesome and almighty.

And then, the humiliation to step down, to lay aside that glory, for the uncreated to step into the form of the created, for the sinless one to step into the form of sinners, and then, stepping into His own world, to be greeted in the terrible way that He was; to be hated, and despised and rejected of men; for the petty little leaders of the petty Jewish church to Lord it over the Lord of lords and King of kings; for the rulers of the petty nations to spit in the face of the Ruler and Creator of all; for the men of earth to despise the king of heaven.

And, brothers and sisters, we know what emotional pain is.  We are human beings.  We feel pain and there is no greater pain than when someone close to us – someone we love – rejects us or hurts us badly.  Sticks and stones may break our bones.  But the words of the ones whom we love, when they are intentionally hurting words, they cut us to the core, they make us bleed inside.  Yes, even we who are supposed to be strong, we feel the pain of words of loved ones.  And why do we feel that pain?  Because we are people.  People bleed inside.

All of us know the reality of emotional pain which we lock deep away because words can't express.  And yet let us also remember, that we are only the image bearers of God.  And if we feel pain, imagine the intensity of the pain of the Lord at His rejection by the works of His hands.  How would you act in His shoes?  As you, the King of the Universe, are asked to justify yourself again and again to the petty elders; or before the clown Pontius Pilate; or being whipped by drunken jeering soldiers; mocked and dressed up; being told to come down from your cross.  And yet He was silent.  And He prayed: Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing!!!

Brothers and sisters, this is your God.  He is not cold and remote.  He is a very Personal God who is very angry that we have gone our own way.  And why should He not be?  We are His creatures!!  But even in the pain of His anger at our silly foolish sinfulness and rebellion, He still loved us.  And when our Father saw the extent of our mess, and saw that we could not save ourselves, He stepped down to do it for us.

And even when sin-blinded men hurled their most powerful abuses at Him, He so loved them that He restrained His anger and prayed for their forgiveness.  He revealed His desire to forgive even that most terrible crime of all, to put the King of the Universe to death.  Sons of men, I am your loving Creator God, your Saviour, your Friend.  Don't push me away.  Don't go on in your blindness.  Turn to me all the ends of the earth and be saved.  Look at who I am.  Why will you die?  Why will you not turn to me and live?  Why do you go on in this pointless petty sin darkened rebellion of yours?  It is so silly.  So pointless.  I am the source of life and joy and peace.  In me you will have everything you need.  In me you will find the satisfaction for the deepest desires of your immortal souls.  Yes, you have been very evil in walking away from me.  And yet, don't you see who I am.  If you will only turn to me, I shall deliver you.  I can save you because I poured out my lifeblood, and the blood of the eternal God is sufficient to wash away the deepest of your stains.

Brothers and sisters, God is very personal.  He can't speak to us any more clearly than He has in the cross.  Look again at that utter humiliation of the eternal God, then look at why He suffered Himself to be humiliated in this way – it was to bring us back to Him.  And if you see that, all your doubts about God will be gone forever.  When you see this Glory of who God is, and when you see His real character and His real person and His real personality, when your thoughts of the remote God out there are transformed into this most beautiful and majestic picture, your doubts will disappear.

You will be filled with wonder, amazement.  Like the prodigal son, you will come running home and God will come running the other way, and in your turning to Him you will find freedom, joy, peace, love, understanding, and a deep, deep desire, to walk in the ways of your God.  Sin loses its power when you fix your eyes upon the Person of your God and when you find that you, a human being, may be His friend and walk with Him like Adam and Enoch and Moses and the disciples.

Going back to our text now, you see why and how the strength of God is His weakness and how the message of the cross is power.  We look at this terrible picture of the suffering servant and suddenly realise: hey, this is truly, the best that God can do.  The strength of God is His willingness to become weak for our sake to draw near to us and to draw us to Him.  The power of the cross is precisely in the message of the love of God.

Still today, people despise the weakness of the cross.  They laugh at us who can believe this sort of stuff.  But let them stand in the shoes of the King of Heaven.  Let them then humble themselves to become the suffering servant.  That is not weakness.  That is a power more awesome than we can imagine.  And even for these mockers Jesus prays for their forgiveness, He prays that they may come to see His Glory, may turn to Him, and find their healing in the very cross and the very weakness that they have despised.  The strength of God, brothers and sisters, is His Love.  His pure eternal and very personal love.  And this strength of God is our salvation, too.  How often have we, too, spit upon the Lord with our hardness of heart.  But His strength is that, in His pain He went to the cross for our forgiveness.

Yes, He knows our hearts.  His strength is that His love for those who fear Him is as high as the heavens are above the earth, and His strength is that, as far as the east is from the west, so far He removes our transgressions from us and remembers our wickedness no more.

Brothers and sisters, maybe you are a person who struggles with making your faith personal to you.  I know that a lot of Reformed people do.  And if you do, I want you to remember that God is just a Person.  When I say 'just', I do not in any way drag Him down.  He is a Person like we have never known.  He is Person par excellence.  But He has deliberately made Himself known to us in a Person-al way.

And this Person, our Almighty Creator God, has come to us in the New Testament, and He, like a man with his girlfriend, has taken the time to open Himself up completely to show us His heart.  And as He talks to us in Jesus Christ, we come to know Him and understand Him.  And in the depth of the heart of God, no matter how far we can look, all we can see, is graciousness and faithfulness, love and truth, forgiveness and mercy, and a depth of compassion and understanding we cannot fathom.  There is no fault in Him.  He is the Perfect One.  The more we gaze into Him, the more we understand Him, the more we see how deeply perfect He is, in His love and faithfulness towards us.  There is truly, none like Him.

When Jesus cried out, “It is finished", and gave up His Spirit, the God of the universe was turned inside out for the whole world to see.  And nothing can ever destroy this moment.  For it is here that the Majestic Invisible One, has shown His world the full extent of His love, the full extent of Who He is.  And if we from out of our darkness finally come to stand confronted with our Maker on the cross, there is not much left that we can do, except to bow down in adoration, and worship and joyful surrender.

We must not resist Him, or ignore Him, or push Him away.  And if we are walking apart from Him today, let us no longer shoot our arrows into the heart of the Father of our soul.  But let us return to Him.  And surely He will take us back.  That is the very reason he came, so that we in our darkness may see His light and return to Him in humility and joy.  God Himself, too, is filled with joy when one prodigal child comes home.

Amen.