Isaiah 53:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It was not His own sufferings that led to His chastisement, but to illustrate that those for whom He endured such suffering would not place their faith in Him—a truth He conveys clearly when He laments over Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! See, your house is left to you desolate (Matthew 23:37, 38). And we thought He was stricken, disciplined, and humbled by God. It is accurately stated that we viewed Him ‘as if of God,’ for God did not force Him to do this; rather, He freely offered Himself for our transgressions. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matthew 27:40), the Jews taunted. Yet all of this was for your benefit, that the scripture may be fulfilled: and we thought that he...

Moreover, through the Psalmist, Jesus Himself declares to the heavenly Father that sacrifices and offerings were not desired, but rather a body was prepared for Him: burnt offerings and sin offerings were not required. So He says, 'Behold, I come: it is written of me in the scroll, “To do Your will, O my God”' (Psalm 39:7-9).

Consequently, since the service of the law could not eradicate the sins of those on earth—the sacrifices of oxen and the offerings of sheep were unacceptable—He, the true Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world, presented Himself as a pleasing sacrifice. After suffering physical death, He redeemed all creation from death and sin; for He alone, being more valuable than all, took on suffering for the sake of all, that He might reign over all. This is further reiterated by Paul, who states, 'For this reason Christ both died and rose, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living' (Romans 14:9), and again, 'He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again' (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Thus, the prophet rightly portrays Him as afflicted and bearing sickness, with a marred visage, disdained, and regarded as worthless; He carries our sins and suffers for us. We perceived Him as stricken, afflicted by God, and filled with sorrow. It is crucial to note the sophistication of the prophetic message in this context. This reveals the perspective of those who were unaware of the mystery of Christ and thought He suffered for His own transgressions. We attributed to Him the experience of grief, illness, and sorrow, mistakenly believing that, by divine decree, He was afflicted due to some sins, as if His suffering resulted from His own failings. However, that is not the truth.

He did not merely heal our weaknesses from a distance, but rather, He bore our infirmities and sins to demonstrate that He became human for our sake, with the bodily form that endured these weaknesses being His own.

As Peter noted, the Word, while bearing our sins "on His body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24), suffered no harm. We, therefore, have been liberated from our desires and filled with the truth of the Word. When it was necessary to heal Peter's mother-in-law, He extended His hand in a human way and, through divine power, eradicated the illness. Since the Word became flesh and embraced human challenges, these trials no longer impact the body, as the presence of the Word within the flesh triumphs over them. Consequently, humanity is liberated from sin and death, having been raised by the power of the Word to achieve immortality and incorruption.

Thus, when He experienced sorrow and wept, it was not the Word as divine who grieved, but rather, it was a response of His human nature. His plea, "let the cup pass away," reflected the vulnerabilities of humanity, not the essence of the divine. The words "Wherefore hast thou forsaken Me?" are recorded by the Evangelists as His own, though the divine Word remained untouched by suffering (for the Word is unchangeable). The Lord took on human form, speaking and acting in this capacity to alleviate the sufferings of the flesh and to grant freedom from them. Therefore, the Lord, who is eternally in communion with the Father, could never be abandoned by Him, either before or after He voiced this expression.

The implication here is that we thought He was punished by God for His own sins—He who was humiliated and crucified alongside criminals for our sake. According to Symmachus, the term used translates to being in leprosy, while Aquila denotes it as leper, which many misinterpret as forsaken; others interpret it as sitting. At the beginning of the passage where the Seventy state, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1), which the Apostle Paul cites in his letter to the Romans (Romans 10:16) in reference to the suffering of Christ, it is noteworthy that the word Lord is absent in the Hebrew text, being added for clarity regarding the identity of the subject being addressed.

Additionally, he conveys, “Strengthen yourselves, ye weakened hands, and trembling and stumbling knees; be comforted, ye timid and faint-hearted in mind; be steadfast, be not afraid; behold our God, - He will render judgement; He Himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then the lame shall leap up like a deer, and the tongue of those who stammer shall be free” (Isaiah 35:3-6). Regarding the resurrection of the dead, he states: “The dead shall rise, and they that are in the tombs shall rise” (Isaiah 26:19). It is essential to have faith in Him as the Son of God when these promises are fulfilled.

Blessed is the person who eliminates these passions, for they will be like a wise sheep, cherished at the God's altar, and will hear the joyous affirmation from the Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many; enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21). Those who pursue their carnal desires and resist the holy remedy of repentance, seeking purity, will undoubtedly find themselves unprepared in their time of need, lacking the garment of virtues, and will be cast into the utter darkness where the devil dwells, clothed instead in the rags of their passions. These include fornication, lust, greed, ambition, wrath, jealousy, vanity, and pride.

Such are the manifestations of evil, along with many others like thoughtlessness, focus on physical appearance, trivial pleasures, laziness, inappropriate speech, immodest glances, unrestrained desires, shamelessness, neglect of God's judgment, envy towards one’s neighbor, deceit against one’s brother, greed, false testimony, misguided knowledge, unwarranted desire to instruct, affection for worldly standards, cowardice, impatience, resentment towards others, refusal to condemn oneself (which is a form of self-deception and arrogance), a greater love for human praise than for God's glory, seeking recognition for one’s deeds, craving for rich foods, indulgence in bodily passions, succumbing to temptation without self-measurement (or self-abnegation), boasting about one's wisdom, being argumentative, insisting on personal will, presenting oneself as rational and wise while regarding others as unreasonable, and belittling them.

All these influences weigh heavily on the soul, leading to a separation from God. These burdens were borne by Adam when he partook of the forbidden fruit. Of these it is written, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases” (cf. Isaiah 53:4). Our Lord Jesus Christ triumphed over them through the cross. They represent the old wineskins that cannot contain new wine. They are the bindings that constrained Lazarus. These are the evil spirits that Christ cast into the herd of swine. This points to the old self that the apostle urged us to discard. He stated, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). He also stated, “But if ye live after the flesh, ye must die” (Rom. 8:13). These are the tares that the earth of Adam produced when he was expelled from paradise.

The prophet states, This one bears our sins, and He is afflicted for us, and we hold Him accountable for His struggles and the plagues of God, and for His anguish. Yet, He was crushed for our transgressions, tortured for our iniquities; the discipline for our peace was upon Him: and by His wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6). This represents the second burden of our Saviour, the burden of His voluntary sufferings, His unparalleled afflictions, torments, and pains, which He embraced for our sinful behalf.

It is undeniable that the Apostle's teaching regarding the significance of Christ's cross is reflected in the prophetic words mentioned and serves to clarify their meaning.

We perceived Him as a mere worker and a scourge from God, and as one who caused bitterness. He suffered for our iniquities, and we mistakenly believed He endured these hardships—His labor, wounds, and every form of anguish—as a penalty for His own sins. This interpretation, which suggests that Christ's suffering was due to His own sins, is insinuated by the structure of the statements, where these thoughts oppose the preceding part of the verse. Without this implied contrast, the message would be unclear.

The Evangelist referring to the prophecy interprets it as fulfilled in the miraculous healing of the afflicted by Christ, as stated: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17). This understanding is consistent and complements the earlier exposition. The Evangelist connects the healing of physical ailments with the prophetic declaration regarding the suffering of the Messiah for our sins, indicating that physical illnesses, which serve as consequences of sin, were healed by Christ, who, through His suffering, released us from our transgressions. The efficacy of Christ's sacrifice for sin also extends to its resulting consequences, including physical disease.