| 忧伤之子
读经：
以赛亚书五十三章1至6节
1我们所传的（或译：所传与我们的）有谁信呢？耶和华的膀臂向谁显露呢？
2他在耶和华面前生长如嫩芽，像根出于干地。他无佳形美容；我们看见他的时候，也无美貌使我们羡慕他。
3他被藐视，被人厌弃；多受痛苦，常经忧患。他被藐视，好像被人掩面不看的一样；我们也不尊重他。
4他诚然担当我们的忧患，背负我们的痛苦；我们却以为他受责罚，被神击打苦待了。
5哪知他为我们的过犯受害，为我们的罪孽压伤。因他受的刑罚，我们得平安；因他受的鞭伤，我们得医治。
6我们都如羊走迷；各人偏行己路；耶和华使我们众人的罪孽都归在他身上。
圣经中的预言能够如实地应验，是证明圣经确是神话语的其中一个证据。旧约有许多关乎耶稣基督降生和受死的预言；我们今天所读到的经文，正是关乎基督的受死。
我们可能会发现这个预言十分奇怪。倘若先知是按照自己的意思来描述将要来临的弥赛亚，他一定会把他描述为一个满有能力和荣耀、处处吸引人的伟大人物。
然而，这却不是旧约对他的写照。这里什至称他是「忧伤之子」，可见他在世上的时候，经历了如何的屈辱和孤单。
其次，留意经文预言他会受人厌弃和藐视。圣经之中，约翰福音一章11节是最令人感到痛心的一节经文，它这样说：「他到自己的地方来，自己的人倒不接待他。」以赛亚说：「他好像被人掩面不看一样」。试问还有什么，比我们碰见一个朋友，他却别过脸去，故意不看我们更令人难受呢？
第三，他受这一切苦楚，绝不是咎由自取，反之，却完全是为了拯救我们。请看第4和5节：他完全是为了承担我们罪恶和痛苦而忍受苦楚。「过犯」和「罪孽」是指到我们的行为违背了神的律法，和故意扭曲神的心意来迎合自己的意思。一个犯罪的人，当然是没有平安，可是，他的内心却渴求得到平安。
神知道我们根本不能够为自己赎罪，因此，他差遣他那完全无罪的儿子进入世界，来为我们成就了救赎计划。
他却要为此而舍掉生命。从来没有人像他受过如此的痛苦，也没有人像他经历如此的忧伤。然而，他受的苦却是非常有价值，因为它产生了前所未有的深远影响。
让我们为到父神给我们所预备的救恩，以及神的儿子甘愿为我们承受了巨大的痛苦和舍命牺牲，再次献上深深的感恩。
THE MAN OF SORROWS
Bible Reading:
Isaiah 53:1-6
1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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.
One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God is fulfilled prophecy. Many prophecies in the Old Testament concern the coming of Jesus Christ, including his birth and his death. Here of course, we are dealing with his death.
Notice first of all the strangeness of this prophecy. If man on his own had been writing the Bible, he would have certainly portrayed the coming Messiah as a great attractive personality who would come with a great show of power and splendour.
But that is not how the Old Testament pictures him. One of the names given to him here is 'man of sorrows'. While he was on earth he knew so much of humiliation and loneliness.
Secondly, notice the rejection that was prophesied. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is John 1:11 - 'He came unto his own and his own received him not'. Isaiah says 'we hid ... our faces from him'. Literally it means 'we turned our faces away when we met him'. Is there anything harder to bear than to have those who should be our friends turn away from us when we meet them?
Thirdly all his sufferings were for us and not himself. Look at verses 4 and 5. It was just as the hymn says 'He took our sins and our sorrows and made them his very own'. Transgressions are those occasions when we break God's laws. Iniquities are our attempts to twist God's will to fit our own. Peace is what we did not have, yet we badly needed.
We could not atone for these things by ourselves. God knew that and he sent his own perfect sinless son into this world to accomplish it for us. But it costs him his life. No-one has ever suffered as Christ did. No sorrow has ever been so deep. No sorrows were ever so undeserved. Yet no sorrow has had such tremendous results.
Why not thank God the Father again today for the way he planned our salvation. Thank the Son of God for all his suffering and death on your behalf and mine?
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