Sing
Isaiah 53 is the foretelling of the crucifixion. It gives us those unparalleled word pictures of Christ the “man of sorrows.” We are brought face to face with the horrific suffering of Jesus’s death. We are confronted with descriptions of the cross that come at us in an unrelenting cascade of verbal blows: “He was…stricken…smitten…pierced…crushed…despised…rejected…afflicted…wounded…oppressed…cut off…”
Interspersed within this portrait of the suffering Servant is an interpretation of why this was to happen. The Servant would suffer such a fate as this because He would “bear our sorrows…be pierced for our transgression…be crushed for our iniquity…our iniquity would be laid on him.”
Much could and needs to be said about Isaiah 53. It is worthy of a lifetime of meditation and study. But this morning I want to point out what follows. The first verse of chapter 54 calls out for the “barren one” to “Sing…break forth into singing and to cry aloud.”
In one sense it seems odd to follow the description of the crucifixion with the command to sing. I love Sandra McKraken’s version of the hymn “O Come and Mourn.” The words are a reflection on the crucifixion and contain a call to “come and mourn with me a while…” I think Sandra’s arrangement gets it right. If you listen to it (linked in the title of the song) you will hear a note of joy even as it asks you to mourn. It speaks not only of the crucifixion but also of the “victory that remains with love” because Jesus our Lord is crucified.
We can’t help but mourn in reading Isaiah 53, but that mourning is meant to lead to worship and joy and singing. The Servant has done everything. He has removed our sin and guilt. He has given us His righteousness, imputed to those who believe. He is creating a new family. Therefore, it is right that we sing. We sing over what He has accomplished, all that we could not do.
