Isaiah 53 (NRSVue)
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
God’s peace is not attained through retributive justice, but reconciliation through solidarity.
Here are some questions for discussion:
1. This interpretation of Isaiah 53:10 is quite different from the substitutionary atonement or retributive sacrifice that many of us have grown up understanding. How does this idea of reconciliation through solidarity sit with you? Is it more or less congruent with the character of God that has been revealed to you in your own personal walk with Him? Why might there be institutional and societal resistance to this interpretation?
2. If Isaiah 53:10 is read not as a prophecy of a single isolated event but as a timeless pattern of how divine love always enters the world—through intentional vulnerability and self-giving, how does this expand the view of Christ not only as a redeeming savior but as exemplar of the way God moves? How does this also illuminate more clearly “the Way” Jesus pointed to for us to follow?
3. What privileges do you have that are an obstacle to solidarity with your neighbor? How can we surrender our privileges that block our path to solidarity?
If you’d like to dig a little deeper, consider the following:
1. Where have you experienced a sense of God joining you in your suffering rather than rescuing you from it? How does that experience inform your understanding of divine love?
2. When violence in the name of God becomes not only inevitable but deemed morally essential, what role does the worldly power structure have in determining the arbiter of this retribution? What then are the options left to those without the power or privilege?
3. When retributive justice is an avenue only for those wielding power, how might the promise of reconciliation through solidarity become the necessary process by which to spread a real message of unending, unconditional love?
4. What about the servant makes solidarity an option that seems less accessible to a king? What does this say about our privileges?
5. Those with privilege find great refuge and security in that position, how does sacrificing our privilege speak directly to the teachings of Jesus in a way that bought or substituted sacrifices simply can not?
For further contemplation, consider this quote & prompt:
How might “He shall see His offspring” be understood as a symbol of the new humanity formed through Christ’s self-giving love? What traits would this renewed and reconciled humanity possess given the character of the Christ we follow into it?