Isaiah — Chapter 53

Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro? Et brachium Domini cui revelatum est?

Lord, who has believed what he heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Cited by John (12:38) and Paul (Rom 10:16) of the unbelief of the Jews in Christ. Lapide: the question is both lament and indictment — the Passion and resurrection were proclaimed by Isaiah with such clarity that the Jews' unbelief becomes inexcusable. 'The arm of the Lord' = Christ Himself (Is 51:9) — His strength displayed paradoxically in weakness, His glory hidden under the form of suffering. 'Revealed' = the Incarnation is a revelation to those with eyes of faith; hidden to those who seek only earthly glory.

Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo et sicut radix de terra sitienti

He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground — Christ's hidden, humble upbringing in Nazareth. 'Dry ground' = the poor, lowly family; the degraded Davidic lineage; the spiritual dryness of Israel's religious establishment in that era. 'He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him' (v.2b) = Christ's human appearance was ordinary — no physical or external splendor. Lapide: this refutes any interpretation that makes the Servant's appearance literally hideous or leprous; 'no beauty' means 'no supernatural visible glory such as the Jews expected.' Applied to the Church: the Church's beauty is interior, not visible to worldly eyes.

Vere languores nostros ipse tulit et dolores nostros ipse portavit

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Matthew (8:17) applies this to Christ's healing miracles — He bore sicknesses by curing them. Lapide: the double sense of 'bearing' — (1) He took our sins upon Himself as our substitute (penal substitution, endorsed by Lapide in its proper sense: satisfaction, not penal exchange); (2) He bore our sufferings in compassion (sympatheia), suffering with us. Peter (1 Pet 2:24) and Paul (2 Cor 5:21) apply the verse to Christ's atoning death. The Hebrew 'nasa' (to bear/carry) is the technical term for the scapegoat bearing Israel's sins (Lev 16:22) — Christ is the true Scapegoat. Lapide carefully distinguishes: Christ bore our sins by voluntarily taking on the punishment due to them, not by becoming sinful.

Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, attritus est propter scelera nostra

He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. The clearest OT statement of substitutionary atonement and redemptive suffering. Lapide's theology of satisfaction: Christ suffered not because God needed satisfaction as if an offended equal, but because divine justice required that the infinite offense of sin (against infinite Majesty) be repaired by an act of infinite value — possible only for one who is both God and man. 'Disciplina pacis nostrae' (the chastisement of our peace) = the punishment He bore produced the peace (reconciliation with God) that we receive. 'By his stripes we are healed' = our spiritual healing is caused by His physical suffering — the wounds of His body are the medicine of our souls. Peter (1 Pet 2:24) cites this verbatim.

Omnes nos quasi oves erravimus, unusquisque in viam suam declinavit

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. The universality of sin ('all' — no exception among the fallen humanity) and the universality of redemption ('the iniquity of us all' — Christ bore every sin of every person). 'Each turned to his own way' = the individualism and self-will of sin; the sheep scatter because each follows its own appetite. The Lord 'made to light upon him' (Hebrew hiphgiya = caused to meet, struck upon) the iniquity of all — the terrifying reality of the Cross as the meeting-point of all human sin and divine justice.

Oblatus est quia ipse voluit et non aperuit os suum

He was offered because he willed it, and he opened not his mouth; as a sheep before its shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. The voluntariness of Christ's sacrifice — 'because he willed it' (Hebrew: 'he was oppressed and he humbled himself'). Lapide: Christ was not a victim but a willing offerer; His silence before Pilate and Herod was not powerlessness but deliberate fulfilment of prophecy and submission to the Father's will. Philip the deacon (Acts 8:32-35) uses this verse to preach Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch — the first Gentile evangelized from this chapter. The 'lamb before its shearer' = perfect docility, non-resistance, and peace in suffering. Applied to martyrs and to penitential silence.

Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief. The most theologically profound verse: God the Father's will to permit and decree the Passion. Lapide carefully distinguishes: (1) God did not actively cause Christ's suffering by positive will — He permitted it and directed the human acts of Judas, Pilate, and the Jewish leaders; (2) God 'willed' the Passion in the sense of willing the redemptive result achieved through it; (3) Christ's own will was conformed to the Father's will ('not my will but yours'). 'When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days' (v.10b) = Christ's offering of His soul (life) in death produces spiritual offspring (the baptized) and eternal prolongation of days (the resurrection and everlasting life). A prophecy of both the Passion and the Resurrection in one verse.

Pro eo quod laboravit anima ejus, videbit et saturabitur

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. The Servant's reward: seeing the fruit of His suffering and being satisfied. Lapide: Christ sees and is satisfied in three ways — (1) now, in His glorified humanity, He sees every soul redeemed by His blood; (2) at each soul's death when it enters eternal life; (3) at the Last Judgment when the full harvest of redemption is displayed. 'Make many to be accounted righteous' = the doctrine of justification: Christ's righteousness is communicated to the many (not merely imputed, as Luther held, but truly infused — Lapide's sustained polemic against Lutheran forensic justification). 'Many' not 'all' — not universal salvation, but universal sufficiency.

Ideo dispertiam ei plurimos et fortium dividet spolia, pro eo quod tradidit in mortem animam suam

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death. The victor's spoil: Christ, having conquered sin, death, and the devil, receives the fruits of victory — the souls of the redeemed. 'He poured out his soul to death' = the total self-gift of the Passion; 'made intercession for the transgressors' = the prayer from the cross ('Father, forgive them,' Lk 23:34) and the continuing intercession of the ascended Christ at the Father's right hand (Heb 7:25, Rom 8:34). The 'strong' with whom He divides spoil = the saints who co-reign with Christ in glory (Apoc 20:4), sharing in the fruit of His victory.