I. Introduction

A. Illustration – There’s a Petra song I like that fits well with what we’re talking about today. It goes something like, “He’s been in my shoes, been down this road before. He’s been tested too; He’s been through this door. He feels the pain, and He heals the bruise. He’s been in my shoes.” That’s what Isaiah 53 is telling us. I’m going to be reading from The Message, and I’d like you to just listen.

B. Isaiah 53:1-12 from The Message – Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2 The servant grew up before God – a scrawny seeding, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. 3 He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, though he was scum. 4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Though his bruises we get healed. 6 We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. 7 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. 8 Justice miscarried, and he was led off – and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. 9 They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man. Even though he’d never hurt a soul, or said one word that wasn’t true. 10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it – life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. 11 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. 12 Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly – the best of everything, the highest honors – because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

C. How can God’s only Son, the pure and holy One, relate to our suffering? How can He know what we’re going through? How could He possibly know how we feel, how we’re struggling, how much pain life brings us? Let’s take a closer look at this passage to learn how much He knows and understands our suffering.

II. He’s Been in My Shoes

A. Verse one - Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2 The servant grew up before God – a scrawny seeding, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. I don’t know about you, but whenever I’ve seen paintings of what Jesus was supposed to have looked like, there’s always some picture of a gentle-looking stud. I have a hard time with an image like that of Jesus, primarily because the only one who’s ever called me a stud has been my wife, and she’s got back eyesight! Our society practically worships the so-called beautiful people, and if you ain’t one of them, you ain’t nothing! That’s why it was so important for Jesus to come as an ordinary guy. There’s almost a sense of shock, of incredulity, by Isaiah of how the Messiah was going to look. It’s almost as if Isaiah is saying, “You’ve got to be kidding, God! Our Savior has got to look better than that!” Jesus wasn’t ugly, but He wasn’t beautiful. He came as a baby, a regular guy, a short Jewish baby who never turned a head in His life with His looks. He came as a regular person so He could relate with us and we could relate with Him. The most beautiful Being in the universe became just like us – could have looked like any one of us. He knows what we’re going through.

B. Verse three - He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, though he was scum. How many times in our life do we feel disrespected, like no one values or respects us? Too many! Everybody wants and needs respect, especially us guys. A survey showed that, if they had to choose between being loved and respected, most men would prefer to be respected. It’s a deep need God placed within us, kind of like the need for love and communication He placed within women. Jesus faced a man’s worse nightmare and the greatest threat to a man’s self-esteem – no one respected Him. As the Gospels show, as long as He cranked out the miracles the crowds followed and adored Him. But their disrespect is shown by how quickly they abandoned and even turned on Him when the religious leaders had Him arrested. We can’t look down on them – we’d have done the exact same thing. He isn’t one of the beautiful people so we just use Him and toss Him aside when we’re through with Him. Even though He suffered just like one of us and was well acquainted with the pain of life, we thought He was a low-life. Know what? Whenever anybody looks down on us, and we hurt so badly because of it, He knows exactly how we feel. Whenever we feel hurt and disrespected, He knows. And because He knows, He cares and can help.

C. Verse four - But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Though his bruises we get healed. We thought He was scum and deserved to be disrespected – after all, He wasn’t one of the beautiful people. We blamed Him for getting Himself into trouble – all the pain and trial and tribulation Jesus faced was His own fault in our eyes. But He did it for us! Every sin, every character flaw, every bad thought and attitude, everything we’ve ever done wrong, He carried on the cross and died so we could be forgiven. He came as a baby for the expressed purpose of taking our punishment. It should have been us who were beaten and bloody by the Roman whip imbedded with fragments of metal and rock. Our bodies should have been ripped to shreds by that whip. Our bodies should have had huge spikes driven into our ankles and wrists. Our bodies should have been hung on a cross. Our souls should be doomed to punishment in Hell for all eternity. But Jesus came as a baby so that we can be healed of our sins, so that our hearts and lives can be made whole.

D. Verse six - We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. 7 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. We have such a tendency to insist on doing things our own way, don’t we? We will go off and do our own thing, even if we know it will hurt us, just because somebody said we shouldn’t do it. That’s called rebellion. Sheep who wander off from the flock and from the shepherd wind up dead. Instead of leaving us for dead, Jesus allowed God to pile all of our sins, all our rebellion, everything we’ve ever done wrong, onto Himself. Why? So we wouldn’t have to suffer for those sins for all eternity. Because He knew that if He suffered for us, we’d know He can understand everything we’re going through, and we’d know He cares enough to suffer and die for us. Know one thing that really floors me about this? While they were beating Him, ripping His flesh to shreds, He never complained. When I suffer, I tend to complain, even though Philippians 2:14 commands me to “do everything without arguing or complaining.” He never complained, because He knew that He was fulfilling God’s will. He knew that we’d suffer at times for fulfilling God’s will, and His suffering shows us that He knows what we’re going through.

E. Verse eight - Justice miscarried, and he was led off – and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. 9 They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man. Even though he’d never hurt a soul, or said one word that wasn’t true. How many times do we find ourselves saying or thinking that life’s not fair. We sure say it to our kids a lot. To use a farming term, life sucks. But the injustices we suffer through don’t hold a candle to the injustices Jesus suffered through. I’ve been passed over for promotions and treated unfairly on the job, but that doesn’t come close to comparing to the miscarriages of justice He went through. I’ve been mistreated by family and betrayed by close friends, but that doesn’t come close to comparing to the miscarriages of justice He suffered. I’ve been falsely accused of improper actions and impure motives, but that doesn’t even come close to comparing to the miscarriages of justice Jesus suffered through. He suffered through incredibly painful miscarriages of justice for us. He was denied the dignity of burial in His own tomb – He was placed in a borrowed rich man’s tomb – and He went through it for us. He never lied and He never hurt anyone, but He went through the suffering of injustice so we can be free from sin. So we can know that He can relate to us. This suffering servant knows how we feel, because He’s been in our shoes.

F. Verse ten - Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it – life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. God’s plan was first and foremost in Jesus’ heart and mind. God’s plan dominated everything He said and did. God’s plan was His purpose in living and in dying. God’s plan was everything to Him, so He allowed Himself to be crushed, overwhelmed to the point of almost passing out with pain, so that God’s plan will be fulfilled. Out of death came life. Life in the form of the crucified Christ rising again from the grave. Life for us spiritually if we put our faith and hope in Him.

G. Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. 12 Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly – the best of everything, the highest honors – because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep. How hard is it for us to see that something a few years down the road will be worth the wait? Very hard! Jesus, in the midst of His suffering, looked at over two thousand years down the road and saw that the end result is worth all the suffering. What would make such bitter and brutal suffering worthwhile? Doing His Father’s will. Seeing spiritual life spring up and multiply. Seeing His spiritual descendants begin to fill the earth. Fulfilling God’s plan for His life made it worth it. Seeing God’s image being rebuilt into those He died to redeem made all the suffering more than worth it. God’s reward for Jesus wasn’t just receiving tremendous recognition. God’s reward for Jesus was in seeing those He loved so much have intimate relationship with God once again because sin is no longer in the way. God sent Jesus to die so that our relationship with Him could be restored and His image in us remade. We were created to be like God in character. Jesus’ suffering makes it possible for that to happen. Jesus stood up for all of us black sheep who’ve sinned, rebelled, lost our way. He paid the price for our sins so that we can have spiritual life. He suffered for us so that He can suffer with us. He knows our suffering. He feels our suffering. This suffering servant can help us because He’s been in our shoes.

H. Illustration – Pastor Tony Campolo, in a sermon entitled “If I Should Die Before I Wake,” said, If you were to have psychotherapy, after a brief while you would feel terrific because everything that's negative about you gets transferred over to the therapist. At the end of a session, a good psychotherapist is feeling terrible, and the patient is feeling great because through the process of discussion, everything negative about you has been moved over to the psychiatrist. Jesus is the ultimate counselor, the ultimate psychotherapist who takes upon himself everything that's dirty, ugly, or rotten--everything that has you down on yourself. He takes it upon himself. He makes it his own. That's the good news of the gospel. You can have the childlike freedom that comes with deliverance from all that is negative and dark. You are able to live life passionately, intensely, and with great excitement (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

I. Jesus is the One born to suffer with us so that we can transcend our suffering, so that God can make good come of it. Are you allowing the suffering servant into your heart so that He can transform you from the inside out?

III. Conclusion

A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. Let’s just spend a few quiet moments listening to the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts about the One who suffers with us.

B. Let’s pray together.