Christ Didn't Sidestep the Cross; Neither Should We | Clip from Servant Songs V

The Messiah Does Not Rebel or Sidestep the Cross

Now, what happens when one morning Christ is awakened and He goes and He gets alone with the Father and as He's looking in the Scriptures and holding sweet communion with His Father in prayer, He realizes this is the day.

This is the day that you will become the sin bearer. Is there any difference in the response from the Messiah to the Father, from the the servant of the Lord to God, when what God says today is it's time to give yourself for your people?

Does the Messiah alter His response? And the wonderful answer is no, not one bit. Let me read in verse five and six again and notice this. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back.

I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. So while that can be a true statement, verse five, of His entire life, the Lord spoke to me, I did not turn back, I did not disobey.

It is here applied particularly to the cross. Now the two Hebrew words that are used here are really very helpful. He says that God opened His ear and He did not rebel and He did not turn aside. Now the Hebrew words rebel, I did not openly say to the Father, no, I will do anything you ask.

I will be perfectly obedient for 33 years. But the morning that I wake up and you tell me the cross is today and I will be in a sense separated from my Father for the first time because I will become the bearer of all that God hates.

And I said to Him, absolutely not. Oh, He did not do that. He did not open and rebel. But look at the second word. He did not turn aside. The Hebrew word there is very simple. It's just kind of quietly dodging something.

So there are two ways that we disobey God. Sometimes there's open rebellion. No way. God, I don't care what you say, I'm not doing it. That's pretty rare. It's too embarrassing. It really puts us in a bad light when we say we love Jesus Christ and then talk to God.

That way.

But it does happen sometimes. More often, we are tempted to disobey by that second word. We turn aside. That is, we simply dodge. We sidestep the command of God and we pretend like He didn't say it. And we tell ourselves we are still walking in obedience, even though God knows we took a slight step to the right and the command passed me by.

Christ did not sidestep the cross, nor did He rebel. So how does He endure? Well, 7, 8, and 9 in this passage describe the Messiah's trusting the Father during this time of difficulty. And that holds Him to the course of obedience.

Let me read it.

Verse 7, For the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced, therefore I have set my face like flint. And I know that I will not be ashamed. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against me? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who is He who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment, the moth will eat them.

Wonderful statements of the Messiah. How does He endure? He trusts Himself to the Father's faithful care. I will not be disgraced, He said. I will not be ashamed. It's like being in a court of law and here comes the world and it lays all of its accusations against me.

But God, my God and Father, is my defender. And in the end, the enemies will just wear out like a shirt that's gotten old and ratty or like a shirt that's been put in storage and moths have eaten it. When they crash against the Messiah, they will wear out.

But the Messiah will not wear out. He will obey. Well again, we see pictures of Christ that perhaps we hadn't thought of before. Isaiah 50, the failed servant of Israel, the perfect servant, Jesus of Nazareth, being awakened every morning by the Father, listening, having words to speak, never rebelling, never gently sidestepping a command, even when it was the cross, but trusting the Father.

Following Christ by Listening, Trusting, and Not Sidestepping Obedience

So Christian, we have pictures here that can fill our heart with material for adoration and worship. It can lead us through an entire day, a week, with just one thought after the next of the beauty of Christ and the incomparable worth of our King.

But also, we follow Him. Sometimes we complain and say, well, I don't know what to say to people when they ask me, you know, when my children are needy, especially when they're adult children, when my friend is needy, when people at the church or people I work with, and they come to me with hard questions and there are hard questions.

Or you hear them complaining and their life is falling apart and you think, I wish I knew what to say. Is it that we don't know what to say because we're not preachers, we're not Jesus, we're not the Apostle Paul?

Or is the answer more likely that we did not wake up that morning and our heart did not respond to the Lord and we didn't sit at His feet and listen? And so as life comes our way, we really don't have much to give.

And when God speaks to you through His Word, do you follow the footpath of Jesus of Nazareth? Look down, you can see it right there in front of you. Even in the hardest moments of obedience, the most sacrificial requirements, the most scary moments where you have to risk everything to follow Christ, look in the path in front.

Of you.

There are His footprints. He did not openly rebel and He did not gently sidestep the cross. And neither can we. To follow Christ, we trust the Father, we don't rebel, we don't sidestep. And God will be honored.

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