Read the passage and respond to these questions:

1. “The Lord’s Servant” (from 52:13) is described here.  How does this passage describe Jesus Christ?
2. What is the purpose of the Servant’s suffering (vs. 10-11)?  the result? (vs. 12)
3. In your own faith journey, how do you go astray and turn to your own way?

“The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” (Isaiah 53:5)  In a world as dangerous and violent as ours, very few people believe that evil can be confronted except with overwhelming force.  And so we “handle” Al Queda by sending soldiers to destroy it.  Certainly no one would dream of applying the substitutionary suffering of the Servant in Isaiah 53 to modern problems.  After all, Jesus did it once, and that’s enough, isn’t it?
Yet a brilliant example of the transforming power of self-sacrificing love happened within our lifetime.  In 1956, Jim Elliot and four other Christian missionary men went to Ecuador to evangelize the Waodani Indians.  Known as “Auca” (savage), the Waodani were notoriously violent.  Warfare was their way of life, and very few men lived into adulthood.  Elliot and his companions had it on their hearts to break this cycle of warfare and murder by introducing the tribe to the gospel of peace.  Unfortunately, the missionaries fell victim to the violence they had hoped to change, and all five were murdered.

You would think that would be the tragic end to the story.  The mission had failed.  But the wives of the missionaries did the unthinkable by courageously going to the Waodani, forgiving them, living with them, and teaching them about Jesus Christ.  The ancient cycle of revenge was broken.  The Auca were converted and renounced their violent ways.  In fact—like St. Paul—one of the warriors involved in the murders eventually became a Christian pastor.   

Instead of confronting death with more death, these brave women overcame death with life.  Their story is told in the recently released movie End of the Spear.
Prayer
Jesus Christ really is the world’s only hope.  Pray for the courage to confront evil with good.