At this time of year we often think on Christ’s humility. Our Christmas Carols speak of a baby “meek and mild”. We sing of the child laid in a manger. We send Christmas cards that depict these lowly scenes. We rightfully remember this wonderful  truth, that the Son of God humbled Himself and came into the world as a baby.

In our passage today, written over 700 years before that first Christmas, we not only see the purpose of Christ’s coming, but we see also the fullest meaning of humility.

These are not easy verses to read. We read words like “despised”, “rejected”, “stricken” and “smitten”. We read of oppression, judgement, chastisement and grief. We read of His wounds, how He was pierced and crushed.

What a humble Servant we have; that the Son of God, the One by whom all things were made, chose to lower Himself, chose to dwell amongst us, and took on all that we read of in this chapter is truly wonderful. His purpose: to bear our sins and transgressions, to die that we might live.

Christ was humbled but yet He has been exalted! If we trust in Christ and what He has done for us as that suffering Servant, we shall one day see Him.

In the words of the carol:

“Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high”

Kenneth Douglas