Isaiah 53:12. Fourth: And made intercession for the transgressors. There he commends His patience to us. He was heartily glad to do it. First He depicts the suffering, second, the kind of suffering, third, the power of the suffering, and fourth, His patience. Thus He compassionately prayed for transgressors and crucifiers and shed tears for them and did not deal with them with threats. Who can place the Christ thus depicted in love into his heart, as He is here described? Oh, we would be blessed people if we could believe this most noble text, which must be magnified. I would wish it to be honored in the church, so that we might accustom ourselves to an alert study of this text, to bring us to see Christ as none other than the One who bears and shoulders the burden of our sins. This figure is a solace to the afflicted, but to snoring readers these are nothing but idle words.  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 231-232).

Isaiah 53:12. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong. Here he repeats as if by an exclamation. Since He poured out His soul in death and was not simply dead but was numbered with the transgressors, the prophet in these words repeats the suffering of Christ. Here he says: He gave His life into death. With that battering ram he strikes the stubbornness of the Jews, who do not want to hear about the Christ who dies but who look for a Christ who never dies. Here the prophet in a very simple and expressive way depicts the manner of His death. He says He will die and then points with the fingers, He will be numbered with the transgressors, as if to say, “You Jews want to acknowledge your Christ. He will appear in such a form that He will die the most despised kind of death in the midst of robbers.” The Jews, who look for a glorious Christ before they will believe in a crucified one, did not want to see this text. This is the way it happens to us who are blind, although as for us, let us believe in the crucified One.

Yet He bore the sins of many. He has described the death. Now he delineates the force and power of His sufferings. He says, “He did not die in vain, but all promises of Scripture have been fulfilled, and all our sins have been taken away. No, He did not toil in vain by His death, but He died to fulfill the promises and to set us free.  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 231).

Isaiah 62:11. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed … the daughter of Zion: Behold, your salvation comes. This is the conclusion and an exclamation. Summary: “Hold tight, and let the Word remain with you, even though the whole world should attack you. Just hold tight, and you will be recompensed. This is so because behold, your salvation comes, that is, “your glory is in the gates.” Behold, His reward is with Him. He brings His reward along with Him. What you have believed will follow. And His recompense before Him. “Reward and recompense” is the fruit of the farmer and the earth. So the recompense of the farmer is the harvest. This, then, is the conclusion and summary: “You have salvation and a Savior coming to you.” Behold the reward, that is, “your labor will not be in vain, but it will have its own fruit.”

12. And they shall be called The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord. They shall be called is impersonal. “One will call them.” And you shall be called. Formerly you were forsaken and despised by your enemies. The ungodly perish and then the church remains. The Roman empire and all the kingdoms rage against the church. They have perished, but the church remains. So it will be today. The prophets gathered this from Moses. This is one sermon concerning the promises given to the church. (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 350-351).