KJV Isaiah 53:3 “A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

NASB Isaiah 53:3 “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

He Suffered from Men

He not only suffered moving amongst men, and suffered as a man, but He endured suffering from men.

The Source of His Suffering

His suffering from men did not begin when He was taken by the soldiers and carried away. It began with His incarnation. Herod’s rage flared, and his sword was dispatched to do away with this rival King Who had been born. Though a babe, He was possessed of all wisdom and knowledge. The awareness of the hatred of civil powers would have been a grief to His soul.

He suffered at the hands of the nation, as he was deemed by the religious and civil authorities to be a blasphemer, impostor, and perverter of the people. His power was attributed to Satan, His teaching contrary to the law that He originally gave, and His birth was said to have been out of wedlock. All of this must have grieved His tender heart.

His own village, in which He had been raised and where He had laboured as a carpenter, took Him to the brow of the hill to be rid of Him. Perhaps 30 years of quiet, industrious, but sinless living repudiated by the hour of their anger.

And then there was His own family. His brothers mocked Him with their words (John 7:3-5). Very likely, He supported the family and had a hand in raising younger brothers and sisters. A spotless life, marked by kindness and goodness, was mocked by those who were humanly closest to Him and who owed Him a great debt.

Every relationship rose up in rejection, wounding His tender heart. It was not a heart that wallowed in self-pity, but a heart that was sensitive to the rejection He experienced.

The Scope of His Sufferings

The sufferings of the Lord Jesus that He experienced from men were both emotional and physical in nature. Psalm 69 tells us of the “reproach, shame, and dishonour… adversaries.” It was impossible to humiliate the One Who humbled Himself. But men could heap the shame of a cross upon Him. They brought accusation after accusation against Him throughout His life. They censured His words, criticized and demeaned His deeds of mercy, and denied His person. He endured all this in His life, an experience that culminated at Calvary.

Dishonour instead of honour, pummeling instead of praise, wounds instead of worship – all of this was not only physically painful, but emotionally painful as well.

But then there were the physical sufferings at the hands of men. Isaiah 50 prophesied of it: “I gave My back.. my cheeks … shame and spitting.” The Gospel records recount the flogging with the flagella, the crown of thorns, the fists, and finally the nails and the uplifting on the tree. Though nothing men did was redemptive, yet He experienced it. It was the ultimate and unavoidable outcome of absolute holiness meeting human depravity.

The Severity of His Sufferings

We must rein in imagination lest we go beyond what Scripture has revealed. Suffice it to say that in this hour in which men and Satan were given free rein to do with Christ “whatsoever they listed [desired].” (Matt 17:12 references John the Baptist, but this is added: “…So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”)  History has revealed that the human heart is capable of devising the most cruel and merciless forms of torture.

His Silence and His Suffering

We look at the silence of Christ and kneel in worship at the only One capable of controlling His tongue. Yet His silence was far more. Men, when undergoing torture or suffering, call down curses on their persecutors; they speak of vengeance and a day of vindication. All of this is not only the natural response to cruelty, suffering, and injustice, but an attempt, admittedly futile, to assuage their own suffering by thoughts of vengeance and vindication. In contrast, the Lord Jesus prayed for those who had mistreated Him. When He was reviled, He did not return their venom (1 Peter 2:23). The Lord did not attempt to lessen His suffering by the proffered drink nor by the use of verbal retaliation.

Satan and His Suffering

We are not given any insight into the full meaning of the Lord’s words, “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). Was it a direct attack, such as occurred in the wilderness temptation? Or was it by inciting the hearts of men to almost diabolic hatred against the Son of God, adding venom to their accusations and blasphemies? Did he so “inspire” humanity to rail and curse the Lord while on the cross that it was another temptation? He tempted the Lord to cast Himself down when in the wilderness. Now men will call upon Him and mock Him by telling Him to “come down“ from the cross and show Himself to be the Son of God.

Though we are not informed of the manner in which Satan attacked Him while in the hands of men and while on the cross, we can be certain of one thing: here was Satan’s opportunity to have the “hedge” removed (Job 1:10) and to be able to do whatever he willed against the Lord Jesus.

His suffering from men was endured with the same quiet dignity and majesty, the same confidence and faith In His Father, that marked Him all His pathway through.