The Servant, Our Savior and Example

/ Eva Burkholder

As I write this, Easter is just around the corner. Since I gave my life to Jesus some 50 plus years ago I struggle at times to revel in my Savior and how he saved me. This year, Isaiah is helping me rekindle that wonder while also showing me how to live.

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.

Isaiah 42:1

My Bible study teacher, JoAnn Hummel, puts this passage in context: “The nation of Israel is introduced in Isaiah as the Servant who was commissioned to be a light to the nations but failed miserably (42:18–25). Consequently, God promises to raise up a Servant who will obey where Israel failed, redeeming Israel and becoming a light for the nations (49:1–7). This Servant will be exalted by God because of his self-sacrificial death for the sins of his people (52:13–53:12).”

We know this Servant is Jesus because the writers of the New Testament tell us. The apostle John states that “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (John 12:41). Furthermore, Matthew (Matt 8:17; 12:17–18), Luke (Acts 8:28–35), Peter (1 Peter 2:21–24), as well as Jesus himself (Luke 22:37) attribute these passages to him.

The Servant of the Lord is called, chosen, formed in the womb of a young woman, honored in the sight of the Lord, and God delights in him. Ultimately he has God’s spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, and knowledge. (See footnotes for bullet lists and references.)

While he isn’t physically attractive or significant, the Servant is righteous, faithful, and gentle. He reveres and submits to God as his teacher and strengthener. More poignantly, this Servant is filled with sorrow and terrible suffering.

The Lord’s Servant has a specific mission—to save the nations, reign on David’s throne, and judge with justice. To heal the wounds of sin and set all people free.

He will do this by speaking powerful words of authority and hope, sustaining the weary. Then he will silently endure false accusations, verbal insults, and terrible physical pain, giving his life to the point of death. He will willingly stand in the gap for sinners, be buried, and finally raised and exalted.

The apostle Peter sums it up like this:

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:21–25

After all the years I’ve followed him, Jesus’s death on a cross still remains a mystery to me. Rather than analyze it, I endeavor to personalize it. First with gratitude and wonder that he would endure so much to save me. But what also screams from the text is Peter’s call to follow in Jesus’s steps. To entrust myself to the One who judges justly, who heals me. To live the right way because he set me free from the pull to sin.

The wonder of Jesus’s sacrifice on my behalf leads me to respond by becoming a servant like him.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:5–8

Jesus himself tells me more succinctly how to be this kind of servant.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends

John 15:12–13

There! That’s how I marvel this Easter. I love others the way the Servant loved me!

What about the Servant increases the wonder of your salvation? How is Jesus asking you to imitate him? How can you love others as Jesus loves you?

PRAYER

Suffering Servant, thank you for healing me by your wounds and setting me free from the power of sin. Teach me to live rightly by following your example—to serve others, to entrust myself to your justice, to not retaliate or insult others, to love others as you have loved me.

All Scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted with emphasis added.

Quote from JoAnn Hummel’s Tuesday Morning Bible Study Lesson #18 handout, March 5, 2024.

The Servant’s Identity:

The Servant’s Characteristics:

  • Delights in the fear of the Lord (11:3)
  • Is righteous and faithful (11:5)
  • Not physically attractive, insignificant (53:2–3)
  • Filled with sorrow and terrible suffering (53:3)
  • Is gentle, not harsh or verbally abusive (42:2; Matt 12:19–20)
  • Is teachable, instructed by God (50:4–5)
  • Strengthened by God (49:5)

The Servant’s Mission:

The Servant’s Method:

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