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Relevant Verses: Luke; Isaiah 53

Leading question: If someone just sat down with Luke and read it through, what would they likely discover about Jesus’ treatment of those in need?

High points in the life and teachings of Jesus. The following passages are ones have shaped our thinking about Jesus:

Luke 1:46-55: Mary’s Vision for her child. Mary’s song celebrates how the small and the weak have been instruments of God’s grace.

Luke 2:1-19: Jesus’ birth. The humble origins of the Ruler of the universe.

Luke 4:16-30: The synagogue at Nazareth. When Jesus read in his hometown synagogue, the message focused on bringing the good news to the poor.

Luke 7:18-23: Messengers from John the Baptist. Jesus pointed to his ministry to the poor and lowly as evidence of his divine mission.

Luke 10:17-24: Return of the Seventy. Jesus rejoiced that the message was received by the lowly.

Luke 19:45-46 [= Matthew 21:13-17]: Cleansing of the Temple. Matthew’s version of the cleansing of the temple is intriguing, for it tells how Jesus’ anger drove the evil people from the temple, but the poor and the children came running to him. O that our anger could have that kind of effect in the world.

The message nobody wanted to hear: Isaiah 53. When Jesus said that he had come to suffer and die, no one wanted to hear it. Only after the resurrection did this message break through:

 He was despised and rejected by others;
     a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
 and as one from whom others hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.

 4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
     and carried our diseases;
 yet we accounted him stricken,
     struck down by God, and afflicted.
 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
     crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
     and by his bruises we are healed.
 6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
     we have all turned to our own way,
 and the Lord has laid on him
     the iniquity of us all.

 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
     yet he did not open his mouth;
 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
     and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
     so he did not open his mouth.

Question: Are God’s people ready to recognize the Suffering Servant today?

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