The fading glories of human showmanship will only get in the way of the most remarkable thing of all: when we behold and proclaim the Servant, we proclaim the depths of God, among children or among the nations. And what could be more attractive than that?

There is a perfect storm that might be coming to a church near you: that worldly people swept up in the growing conservative cultural wave will be washed up into a worldly church and hear worldly preaching and think themselves already Christian. Or in other words, people who treasure power, size, appearance, and comfort will come into churches that are generally conservative and also cling to these things, and these worldly people will think themselves to be Christians. Even if the message of these churches is orthodox, the cultural packaging and clever turns of phrase mute all the offensive elements of the gospel and affirm to the unbeliever that “we are really the same deep down.” It leaves searching people without God and without hope in the world (Eph 2:12).

And this “muting” trend is not new—not by a long shot. Even during the earthly ministry of Jesus, the disciples are bewildered at his predictions of his death and resurrection, especially as a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus, the Messiah, repeatedly predicts his sufferings, death and resurrection (Mark 8:31-33, 9:31-32, 10:33-44), and it is completely lost on everyone. Even after his resurrection, the disciples are slow to understand.

And so Jesus must open their minds to see how his death, resurrection and proclamation were predicted by the Old Testament (Luke 24:44-46). The approach of Jesus seems to show that such predictions were a clear part of the Old Testament teaching, and yet the slowness of the disciples to understand indicates that this teaching is not immediately obvious.

Evangelical commentators often note that Isaiah 52:13-53:12 would be chief among the texts that Jesus would have used to explain his suffering and mission after his resurrection. This is fundamentally correct, as we shall see. And yet even this text is not without complexity! Many critical scholars seem to have gotten no further than the Ethiopian Eunuch did in his analysis of Isaiah 53: “About whom does the prophet speak? About himself or about another?” (Acts 8:34). Modern culture, like ancient culture, struggles with a crucified Messiah. To be fair, what evangelical student of the Bible has not walked away from a study on the latter chapters of Isaiah in a fog when he hears from the learned scholars that the ‘servant’ in Isaiah is Cyrus, Israel, and the Messiah!?

In light of the clear affirmation of Scripture that Jesus’ death and resurrection were prophesied, and also the struggle that people had in coming to believe this, the goal of this article is three-fold: First of all, it analyzes how the portraits in Isaiah of both the Messiah and the Suffering-Servant are both very different and have deep similarities, pointing strongly but subtly to Jesus as the fulfillment of both. Secondly, it examines how Paul uses the idea of “the Messiah crucified” (1 Corinthians 1-2) as the surprising essence of salvation and true spiritual knowledge. And lastly, it looks at how this reality fundamentally shapes the way we bring Christ to people, which can help guide us through the challenges of our cultural moment. We begin with a comparison of the King and the Servant in Isaiah.

The Messiah and the Servant of the Lord

By all accounts, the descriptions of the Messiah figure in Isaiah are exalted. When we read, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it” (Isa 9:7), it is hard not to think grandiose thoughts. Likewise, only a few chapters later, we read about the same figure, “with righteousness he shall judge the poor… and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4), it is hard not see the Messiah as a powerful ruler.

Other texts could also be included here (Isa 4:2-6; Isa 32:1-2) that would further demonstrate the powerful and good reign of the Davidic King. The picture is one of growing sovereignty, righteousness and justice, punishment of the wicked, and peace for the people of God.

However, these texts seem a far cry from the Suffering-Servant of Isaiah 40-55, who seems to be a figure of humility, suffering and, at least initially, dishonour. We read of him, “He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice…a bruised reed he will not break… he will faithfully bring forth justice”  (Isaiah 42:2-3). And in the climactic passage regarding the Servant, we read very hard things. He is disregarded by the people: “we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God.” He is crushed by God for sin: “upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:4b-5).

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