THE ADVENT – SUFFERING SAVIOUR

The advent is a season, we generally associate with joyful celebrations. Why not, we are celebrating, after all, the birth of the Saviour, and our Redeemer. It is good to celebrate, and we should all the more. However, the One who brought this joy, and these celebrations to us, had a life of suffering and pain. The LORD Jesus had to go through intense pain and agony, on His way to buying our freedom and our salvation. This should make us to pause, and to think about the Suffering Saviour.

In line with the above thought, let us read and meditate on chapter 53 from Isaiah…
“2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked-But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”

The LORD Jesus suffered for our redemption. He endured all that pain and the agony, because of His love for us. He gladly endured the suffering, for He cares for us and our salvation. How about us? Are we willing to suffer for the LORD? Are we willing to care for those who are suffering? Are we willing to stick out neck out for those who are in need of help? Think about it. Think it over. Think about the Messiah who chose to suffer for the sinners and the lost.