For Easter: A Unique Portrait

Uplook – March 2013 – Grace & Truth Magazine

AN EASTER MEDITATION

A Unique Portrait

How impossible it is to escape the conviction that the prolonged description of Isaiah 53 suits only one figure in all human history – Jesus, the Man of Calvary. The totality of the following facts cannot possibly be applied to any other:

1. He came in utter lowliness, without “form or comeliness” (53:2 NKJV).
2. He was “despised and rejected by men” (3).
3. “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (4).
4. His vicarious suffering provided a remedy for our sin (5).
5. It was a suffering in which God transferred our guilt to Him (6).
6. He remained absolutely resigned under His fearful affliction like a lamb led to the slaughter (7).
7. He died as a felon, cut off prematurely (8).
8. Yet He was personally guiltless (8-9).
9. He would live after death, having a “seed” of followers so closely connected with Him as to form His family (10).
10. His followers would result from His sufferings and give Him immense satisfaction (11).

Is it possible to mistake the likeness? As trait after trait is added, is it possible to write any other name beneath the portrait than this – Jesus of Nazareth? And when we recall the fact that this portrait was drawn, and every trait filled in at least 500 years before Christ came, what shall we say? What mind could have pictured this Sufferer, described His condition, and told His story – a story to which no one else answers before or since? Is this a miracle or not? Who read the future in this case and gave us this description of the great Sin-bearer?

But there is a still greater marvel in the opening words of verse 9: “He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death.” These words have created difficulties for expositors, and critics have proposed to alter the text and put the words “grave” and “death” in their natural order. Hebrew textual scholars agree that the verb “made” is here impersonal and that the words mean “His grave was made” or as the Revised Version has it, “They made His grave” with the wicked.

By Roman law, the body of the crucified is left hanging on the cross until it disappeared through exposure. But in Judea a change had to be made since the Law of Moses expressly enjoined that the body of no criminal was to be exposed after sunset. In this particular case, sunset ushered in the great Passover feast, therefore a Sabbath “and a holy day.” That could not possibly be profaned. Consequently, the Roman officials had to make provision for the burial as well as for the execution of our Lord and the two malefactors. There were three graves as well as three crosses which must have been near to the place of execution.

And now what must have been the order of these contemplated burials? Our Lord was crucified in the midst of the two thieves, so it was doubtless arranged that He should also be buried between the two thieves. “They made His grave with the wicked.” But God had not ordained that it should be thus! Remember what happened. A thought sprang up within the heart of one who had hitherto been a secret disciple, but who – in these last days when all men were forsaking the Nazarene – was not afraid to declare himself. His soul revolted at the thought of the intended desecration. This man, a ruler named Joseph of Arimathea “went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus” (Mk. 15:43 KJV).

It was a great thing to ask, and this Jewish ruler knew it. Note the word “craved.” Matthew and Luke also emphasize this, noting that Joseph “begged” the body of Jesus. In John we read that he “besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus” (Jn. 19:38). It was a great thing to ask, and it was a great thing to grant. But permission was granted. And the body was surrendered to Joseph.

He had a new tomb ready, no doubt for himself, and one which wealth and art had prepared and adorned. There, touched with reverent hands, and enveloped in rich and fragrant ointments, the Redeemer’s body was laid. That is the record of the Gospels. But it was all written there over 500 years before on the prophetic page of Isaiah 53! As John Nelson Darby’s New Translation puts it, “Men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death” (Isa. 53:9).

Let us now note one more thing. These words form a turning point in the passage. Up to the words, “Men appointed his grave with the wicked,” the story is one of deepening humiliation. But it changes with the next words, “but He was with the rich in his death.” When He was actually dead and all the penalty was paid and full atonement was made, the story suddenly alters. The verse goes on to say “Because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.” It is also repeated that He was there simply “as an offering for sin.”

From this point on, all is brightening glory and crowning triumph. Who was it that determined that at the moment of burial, the humiliation should stop and the exaltation begin? Who spoke from days of old that though “they made His grave with the wicked,” in that grave the Redeemer’s body should not lie? When we receive a merely natural explanation of this, we may believe this book to be the forgery which criticism would convince the world that it is. But reason and experience, mind and conscience, demand that we receive it as the Word of the living God.

This article, by John Urquhart, Scottish preacher, teacher and defender of the Bible, is a condensed version of one that appeared in the British Scripture Truth Magazine (Dec. 1932). Used by permission.