The Suffering Servant

Summary

“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” | 42-43

There is not a more ironic moment in the Bible than at the scourging of Jesus. As Jesus is prepared for death, He is mocked, beaten, and spit on with an angry passion usually reserved for the most vile criminals. What makes this ironic is not just that it is an innocent man being punished, but this is the King of Kings at the ‘mercy’ of His creation. As they mock Him: he cannot save himself…He can. As they joked about His inability to be delivered, He could have, at any moment, destroyed them all. The irony is: they mocked His power in the exact moment that He restrained it. Jesus held back His power in order to reveal a much greater power: His all-conquering love. We don’t worship the suffering servant simply because He suffered, but for the reason why He suffered. His suffering was a calculated sacrifice to save His people from the destruction of sin. As Jesus suffered, He was doing it in order to claim victory. The crown of thorns was meant to be mocking, but it crowned Him king.