憂傷之子
以賽亞書五十三章1至6節
1我們所傳的（或譯：所傳與我們的）有誰信呢？耶和華的膀臂向誰顯露呢？
2他在耶和華面前生長如嫩芽，像根出於乾地。他無佳形美容；我們看見他的時候，也無美貌使我們羨慕他。
3他被藐視，被人厭棄；多受痛苦，常經憂患。他被藐視，好像被人掩面不看的一樣；我們也不尊重他。
4他誠然擔當我們的憂患，背負我們的痛苦；我們卻以為他受責罰，被神擊打苦待了。
5哪知他為我們的過犯受害，為我們的罪孽壓傷。因他受的刑罰，我們得平安；因他受的鞭傷，我們得醫治。
6我們都如羊走迷；各人偏行己路；耶和華使我們眾人的罪孽都歸在他身上。
信息分享
我們可能會發現這個預言十分奇怪。倘若先知是按照自己的意思來描述將要來臨的彌賽亞，他一定會把祂描述為一個滿有能力和榮耀、處處吸引人的偉大人物。
然而，這卻不是舊約對祂的寫照。這裡甚至稱祂是「憂傷之子」，可見祂在世上的時候，經歷了如何的屈辱和孤單。
其次，留意經文預言祂會受人厭棄和藐視。聖經之中，約翰福音一章11節是最令人感到痛心的一節經文，它這樣說：「他到自己的地方來，自己的人倒不接待他。」以賽亞說：「他好像被人掩面不看一樣」。試問還有甚麼，比我們碰見一個朋友，他卻別過臉去，故意不看我們更令人難受呢？
第三，祂受這一切苦楚，絕不是咎由自取，反之，卻完全是為了拯救我們。請看第4和5節：祂完全是為了承擔我們罪惡和痛苦而忍受苦楚。「過犯」和「罪孽」是指我們的行為違背了神的律法，和故意扭曲神的心意來迎合自己的意思。一個犯罪的人，當然是沒有平安，可是，他的內心卻渴求得到平安。
神知道我們根本不能夠為自己贖罪，因此，祂差遣祂那完全無罪的兒子進入世界，來為我們成就了救贖計劃。
祂卻要為此而捨掉生命。從來沒有人像祂受過如此的痛苦，也沒有人像祂經歷如此的憂傷。然而，祂受的苦卻是非常有價值，因為它產生了前所未有的深遠影響。
讓我們為到父神給我們所預備的救恩，以及神的兒子甘願為我們承受了巨大的痛苦和捨命犧牲，再次獻上深深的感恩。
THE MAN OF SORROWS
Isaiah 53:1-6
1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Message
Notice first of all the strangeness of this prophecy. If man on his own had been writing the Bible, he would have certainly portrayed the coming Messiah as a great attractive personality who would come with a great show of power and splendour.
But that is not how the Old Testament pictures him. One of the names given to him here is 'man of sorrows'. While he was on earth he knew so much of humiliation and loneliness.
Secondly, notice the rejection that was prophesied. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is John 1:11 - 'He came unto his own and his own received him not'. Isaiah says 'we hid ... our faces from him'. Literally it means 'we turned our faces away when we met him'. Is there anything harder to bear than to have those who should be our friends turn away from us when we meet them?
Thirdly all his sufferings were for us and not himself. Look at verses 4 and 5. It was just as the hymn says 'He took our sins and our sorrows and made them his very own'. Transgressions are those occasions when we break God's laws. Iniquities are our attempts to twist God's will to fit our own. Peace is what we did not have, yet we badly needed.
We could not atone for these things by ourselves. God knew that and he sent his own perfect sinless son into this world to accomplish it for us. But it costs him his life. No-one has ever suffered as Christ did. No sorrow has ever been so deep. No sorrows were ever so undeserved. Yet no sorrow has had such tremendous results.
Why not thank God the Father again today for the way he planned our salvation. Thank the Son of God for all his suffering and death on your behalf and mine?