The “Suffering Servant” of Isaiah 53, until Messiah arrived, was understood to be Israel as a whole. Christians saw that the Christ and the Suffering Servant were one and the same Person. God did not sit above the suffering of humanity, but entered it by incarnation. By suffering, He sanctified suffering. We are invited to take our human suffering and join it to His; in this way, we KNOW Him, not so much in a deeper way, but as He is, the suffering God. Frankly, I would rather see Him in a sunrise and a sunset or experience Him on the mountain while I enjoy its vistas. Though I know Him in all of these ways, I know Him fuller as I enter into His suffering. Few of our desires match Paul’s who said, “that I might know the fellowship of his suffering.” Ponder it!
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:10-11 (NASB)
