Jesus Lifted on the Cross

If you were asked to summarize Jesus’ death on the cross, explaining its complete significance, and put it into a nice, concise, and understandable paragraph or so, could you do that? That was a rhetorical question by the way. As much as we know of Jesus’ sufferings for all of us, I don’t think we can ever write a summary as well worded and packed with imagery as the prophet Isaiah did. So let’s read what exactly did this prophet say about Jesus.

Read Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

Whoa. That was my initial reaction to reading this. Now the words used in this “servant song” may seem familiar to you – and they should – because many are quoted in the New Testament. In fact, by reading this entire passage, you essentially have the whole gospel of Jesus. Isaiah walks the audience through the rut of Jesus’ mission to the eventual glorification of it. I know you probably already know the majority of this passage so let’s focus on some key aspects of Jesus’ death.

Look at verse 15: “so will he sprinkle many nations…” The word sprinkling is often used to describe ceremonial cleansing and/or consecration seen in the Old Testament. Okay, so what? The significant part of this verse is the “many nations” part. So put those two together and you get Jesus cleansing many nations. Many times, people take for granted that Jesus died for everyone. We say it so often, but do we really grasp that concept? Jesus purified all nations, which means everyone is included – even the looked-down-upon gentiles in the old days. Gentiles, during this time, were basically segregated from the Jews. They weren’t the “chosen ones,” so they had less rights to worship God than the Jews. But with Jesus’ sprinkling death, everyone is included. The arms that were spread wide upon that cross covered all nations.

So what does this mean to me? Well, simply stated, Jesus died for everyone. Yes, I know that’s extremely general, but can you put those words into action? Are you kingdom-minded, in that you seek to grow God’s kingdom with everyone and not just the people you like? Remember, Jesus’ death welcomed the nations, regardless of who the inhabitants were.

Pray and ask God to be help you be kingdom-minded. Pray that you would make disciples of all nations. The more genuine our prayers are in wanting to be kingdom-minded, the clearer God’s kingdom here will be shown.