Numbered with the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:12 - Numbered with the transgressors. 

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Here is a challenging passage for our reflections on Incarnational mission. This passage says of Jesus that he "...was numbered with the transgressors" This has a deeply submergent message to us. Jesus in John's gospel "took on flesh and lived among us" He became human, took on our humanity, this is John's way of describing what Isaiah mentions here.


I have three questions that are occupying my thinking as we are in the ADVENT season, as we approach the time we celebrate Jesus taking on human flesh.

1. In our mission are we so unlike this Jesus approach, that we are missing the mark entirely? 
2. What does this passage have to say to our missiology? 
3. How deep in our discipleship are we willing to go for the sake of Christ?

Being prepared to be numbered with the trangressors means getting our hands dirty, living in the same space as others, embracing the pain of others, living with the radical grace of God extended out through us toward others. IT IS A REAL CHALLENGE TO OUR COMFORTABLE CHURCH -IANITY.