The Father Vindicates the Suffering Son

… is the will of him who sent me, “that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). So, to win life for those who believe in him, he did not refuse insults, or whips, or the trial of being spat upon, though he is God by nature and true Lord.

Then he says, as a man: “And the Lord became my helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I would not be ashamed, because he who justifies me draws near” (Isaiah 50:7-8). So he speaks in a human way, as I said, and in no way out of keeping with the measures of his self-emptying.

Yet through these words he seems to hint at the judgment that came down on them for their impiety toward him. For he says, “The Lord became my helper.” It is as if he said: When I had given my back to whips and my cheeks to blows (Isaiah 50:6), and had suffered the sufferings on the cross as well, the Father became my helper. For he came to his defense, and did not allow his own Son to be utterly disgraced, nor indeed to be put to shame. For those who dared to fight against God have been punished, and have paid the penalty for their offenses against me.

By adding, “He who justifies me draws near,” he again deftly made plain that the judgment on those who had outraged him would not be far off or put off, but would come near, as it were, and follow close on the heels of their deeds.

We say that the Son was justified in this way. Since they dared to kill him, though he was righteous and in no way guilty of any fault, they have been punished, as I said; and the punishment of those who suffered it has borne witness that he whom they so impiously outraged was wholly blameless. God the Father said something of this kind: “And I will give the wicked in return for his burial, and the rich in return for his death” (Isaiah 53:9).

By the rich and wicked he means the leaders of the Jews. For they were sick with an extreme love of money, and through it they were carried away into their wickedness against him. Indeed, although they had recognized him, they kept saying, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves” (Matthew 21:38).

“Who is the one who contends with me? Let him stand up against me together. Who is the one who contends with me? Let him come near to me” (Isaiah 50:8).

That he was righteous and wholly innocent (for he committed no sin; 1 Peter 2:22), and yet endured the drunken outrages of the Jews, the divine prophet himself will confirm when he says of him, “See how the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart” (Isaiah 57:1); and again, as in the person of the Jews, speaking of him: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us” (Isaiah 3:10). The fact itself would proclaim it aloud. For the divine and pure nature of the Word …