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, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:2-12, NRSV)
The Suffering Servant, a passage that points us to Jesus.
He allowed those who controlled the organized religion to eliminate Him as a threat to them.
Honestly, it wasn’t about the Jews not liking Jesus, it was about those in power not wanting to lose that power. It is exactly what we are seeing in our country now. People will bend the truths of God to fit into the boxes we have made to hold God. So that God can’t make us do what we don’t want to and so everyone else conforms to our understanding of how God works in the world.
But here is the thing, God was not contained to a box then. The grave could not hold Him. Even after they killed Him, He came back to finish what was started.
God will not be contained by us. He will have His will done, through or in spite of us.
He was silent then so prophecy could come true, but now He will not be silenced.
Will we follow Him or try to force Him into our box?
aSacredRebel 