“There shall be no such perversion in My kingdom,” Christ says, “but first you must make the big villain pious, the one you find in your own skin when you examine yourself carefully. Once you have accomplished this much, there will be time enough to make a little villain pious. But it will amaze you how much trouble the big villain will cause you every day. Therefore I am willing to guarantee and to stake My life on it that you will never get around to removing the speck from someone else’s eye, and will have to say: ‘How can I deal with other people and make them pious first? I cannot even make myself pious or get rid of my log.’ Thus you will probably leave your brother’s speck unharmed.” You see, what Christ means to say as a summary of this teaching is that we should willingly practice forgiveness, patient forbearance, and humility in our relations with one another; that is what the situation would have to be like if we followed this teaching. Then everything in Christendom would move along correctly and harmoniously, as it should, and God would be with us. But through his members and through Sectarianism the devil keeps this from happening. (Luther’s Works, v. 21, pages 221-222).

Isaiah 52:15. So shall He startle many nations. Here the glory appears again. The prophet proceeds with two members. He says that this Servant is wise and glorious, but there follows another member. He will be without glory and despised. Then follows that His glory will nevertheless be such that He will startle the nations, and the kings will shut their mouths. That is to say, all kings will become ashamed and will know that this King is supreme, and hence they will shut their mouths. They will all humble themselves. Reconcile this contradiction, that all kings regarded themselves as servants with relation to Him. And yet He will be despised and without glory. Therefore Christ’s kingdom is indeed spiritual and ultimately beyond death.

Sprinkle. This is a Hebraism for “it will be preached.” Sprinkling in the Law denotes preaching, as if to say: “After Christ will have suffered, He will be proclaimed not only among the Jews but also among the Gentiles as water is thrown at and sprinkled on people.” So Peter speaks of “sprinkling with His blood” (1 Peter 1:2) to denote preaching about the blood of Christ. So then we must preach that Christ is both glorious and despised. So Paul preaches Christ alone as misshapen and as crucified. And so He must always be preached, but He shall nonetheless be received even by kings. This is a powerful text against the Jews. They can refer this preaching to no king but Christ. (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 217).

Isaiah 53:8. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Now he begins to treat His glorification. Behold, here he declares that He whom he had until now depicted as a sheep to be killed and whom he had described as destined for a most shameful death for the sins of others is to be raised again. Now he describes Him again. He is not dead but taken away from oppression. Here he says that His oppression and judgment is finished. This cannot be said of a dead person remaining in the grave, but it can be said of one liberated and revived. The text says that He was oppressed and in judgment but has now been removed from them, hence resurrected.

As for His generation, who will tell it? Who can relate its duration, since His life and duration is eternal? Note the two contrary statements: Someone dying and yet enduring forever. Generation properly means age, era, a lifetime. it is a proverbial statement that “a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Eccl. 1:4). This must be understood as referring not to generation but to age. Here, then, the prophet established Christ in an eternal age, something that cannot be expressed, namely, that He has been transposed into eternal life. Peter expounds this passage in Acts, where he says (Acts 2:24): “God raised Him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it,” and led Him into generation, that is, into length of life and eternity. Christ has such length of life that it cannot be expressed. Unless we believe it by faith, eternity is beyond expression. (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 226-227).

Isaiah 52:13. Behold, ⁷ My Servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and lifted up. … Behold, My Servant shall prosper. Here we begin chapter 53. Until now you have heard Christ’s kingdom depicted in the cross and that it is carried forward by faith and the Word alone. Yet that leading of faith, the Word, and the cross is not without deliverance and protection. In this chapter the prophet speaks primarily of the Head of the Kingdom as he treats of the person of the King and the manner of His deliverance. This is the foremost passage on the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and there is hardly another like it. Therefore we must memorize this passage, for it certainly drives out the stubbornness of the Jews. The Jews cannot deny that this passage speaks of Christ. They indeed grant the glories of Christ in this chapter, but they are unwilling to grant His cross and sufferings. Yet this is what the text says: This King will be glorious, but after His death. This indicates that this King is different from an ordinary one, since He will begin His reign after death. Behold, My Servant shall prosper. He calls Him Servant as He did above (42:1 f.): “He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street.” There He is not just called Servant, as the monastics think, but He is a servant, that is, a minister of the Word, an apostle and an ambassador. What will this Servant do? He shall prosper. (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 215).