Like a Sheep – Isaiah 53:7-9

The Dwekh Nawsha is a Christian military organization created in June 2014 to defend Iraq’s Assyrian population from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and possibly retake their lands currently controlled by ISIL.  They were formed soon after the U.S.-supported Kurdish Peshmerga…retreated from many Christian villages without a struggle…declining to protect them from the IS advance which led to the usual atrocities.  According to the Christian Science Monitor, “Christians have taken up arms because they want to protect their own land, and many no longer trust the Kurds to do it for them.”  Should Christians defend themselves against their persecutors?  This is a much more complicated question than we might imagine (see Michael Brown).  The Servant of Yahweh did not defend himself.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who  considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?  And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no  violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7-9, ESV)

The character of the servant as a sacrificial substitute is now described.  Everything about his death was unjust.  He was a victim of oppression.  His people considered him worthy of death, not perceiving that he was paying the penalty for their sin.  For this reason his grave was associated with the wicked, and yet, strangely, his grave was associated with the rich and wealthy, too.  We understand now that he was subjected to the most humiliating of criminal deaths, even being crucified between two thieves, but buried in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, a well to do Pharisee who had converted.

Nevertheless, the servant’s character was that of an innocent, or better, righteous person.  He did not rail against the injustice being perpetrated against him, but kept silent.  He did no violence deserving of death and displayed absolute integrity of character, his words matching his heart in all cases and always communicating the truth.

He was a spotless, unblemished sacrifice, as required in the Law of Moses.  He was not a sinner and so was able to stand in for those who were.  And that is everyone.

Discussion Questions

1. When have you felt like fighting back?
2. Why did Jesus not fight back, and prevent his disciples from fighting back?
3. Would Jesus have forfeited his claim to sinlessness if he had fought back?
4. Jesus was mostly silent before his accusers.  Was that deceitful?
5. Jesus did respond to Pilate’s demand for a statement: Mark 15:2 – And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.”  Why did Jesus respond to Pilate?
6. If we are being persecuted are we justified in fighting back?