The use of the word ‘servant’ is used in two contexts;

1) attributed to a specific person and

2) unattributed

From Isaiah 20 onwards, the attributed usage of ‘servant’ is applied to:

• Isaiah
• Israel
• Eliakim son of Hilkiah
• David
• Jacob

The unattributed usage of ‘servant’ is applied to:

• the redeemer of Israel, his Holy One

Aha! So the unnamed ‘servant’ is the ‘redeemer’ of Israel, his Holy One.

Reading Isaiah 49:26 we see who the ‘redeemer’ is….

I the LORD am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
So while the name Yeshua or Jesus is not mentioned, the identity of Yeshua / Jesus is as clear as daylight.

I gave my back to the smiters, And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair;
I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
(see Micah 5:1 as well)

“Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him.”
Matthew 26:67.
(Also see Luke 22.63)

ZECHARIAH 13
6 And one shall say unto him: ‘What are these wounds between thy hands?’ Then he shall answer: ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

Yeshua Ha’ Mashiach, Jesus Christ the Messiah

Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold the King cometh unto thee: He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass.”

Micah 5:2
“But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.”

Matthew 10:38

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 20:17

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

Matthew 27:22

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!”

Matthew 27:23

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Matthew 27:31

After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 27:34

There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Matthew 28:4

The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Mark 15:13

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

Mark 15:14

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Mark 15:20

And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Mark 15:24

And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Luke 24:7

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7′The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

John 19:17

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others–one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

John 19:40

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Acts 2

“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Acts 2:36

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

1 Corinthians 1:17

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Galatians 6:13

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Philippians 2:5

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death–
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 3

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

Colossians 1:19

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 2:13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Hebrews 6:4

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

For 2,000 years Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah. Why?

This article on the Jewish website www.aish.com explains from a Rabbi’s perspective why Jews don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the messiah or mashiach.

Another post of what Jews typically say about Isaiah 53 can be found at www.OutreachJudaism.org

Feb 2004

There is much controversey over ‘who killed Jesus’ in anticipation of the release of Mel Gibson’s film ‘The Passion’. Sadly, this is a distraction from the actual message of Salvation for mankind. The truth is that we all killed Jesus, since he died for OUR SINS, yours and mine included. Other than proving that Jesus is the Son of God via the fullfilment of prophecy, the matter of who was responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion (the Jews or the Romans) is hardly important to the message of John 3:16, that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. . . For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
Isaiah 53:6-8

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Romans 4:25