Counted as Lawless
He said to them, “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “No, not a thing.” He said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted among the lawless,’ and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.” They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” He replied, “It is enough.”
Luke 22:35-38
God is truly in control and Jesus is truly God. Through Isaiah, over 600 years before Jesus came to earth as a man, God foretold the events of Passion Week in shocking detail. The prophecy is recorded as Isaiah 53. Then, on the evening of the Last Supper, mere hours before His horrific ordeal would begin, Jesus quoted Isaiah 53 and said “For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me … indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled” (Luke 22:37). Through Isaiah, God explained what would happen and why. Jesus said He is the One Isaiah wrote about and said the events foretold are happening now, and within hours He was arrested in the garden.
It all unfolded according to God’s plan. God is sovereign. God is in control. Jesus is God.
Do you believe Jesus is the Messiah? If you have doubt, Jesus’ statement above, combined with the prophecy He quotes and all the evidence in the gospels that He indeed fulfilled the prophecy seem convincing. Let’s take a closer look.
In Luke’s presentation of the Gospel, the passage above is Jesus’ final teaching on the evening of the Last Supper before walking to the garden to pray. He shared the Passover meal with the disciples, introduced the Lord’s Supper, foretold Peter’s denial, and then He said the words set forth in the passage above. The statement is of profound significance.
Shortly before walking to the garden, where He knows He will be arrested, Jesus tells the disciples to arm themselves because they will soon be considered criminals because of their association with Him. In the middle of their exchange about swords, Jesus says, “For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted among the lawless,’ and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled” (Luke 22:37-38). He claims association with the prophecy saying, “This scripture must be fulfilled in me…”. Immediately after saying that, He quotes Isaiah 53:12. And then He calls the time: “what is written about me is being fulfilled.”
This is incredibly significant because through it, Jesus points the disciples and us to the most shocking and graphic Messianic prophecy, explaining what is about to happen to Him, explaining why, and presenting it all as pre-ordained by God the Father. Over 600 years earlier, God inspired Isaiah to write the words that clearly describe what Jesus is about to endure. Jesus directs our attention to it and says it is all being fulfilled.
Let’s consider Isaiah 53. Isaiah begins writing,
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Isaiah 53:1
In chapter 12 of John’s presentation of the Gospel, John describes Jesus riding a young donkey into Jerusalem. He stops and discusses death. He describes a grain of wheat dying and through its death, producing “much fruit” (John 12:24). He then explains to the crowd that He must die, and everyone understood Him to say that He would be crucified, and He urged them to “believe in the light” (John 12:36), but a dying Messiah did not match their expectations, and they shifted from adoring Him as the new king, to seeing Him as a fraud who should be crucified.
After the exchange, John writes,
After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” John 12:36-38
God’s holy word proclaims that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53:1. Isaiah continues writing,
For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity, and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Isaiah 53:2-3
Jesus had no position of prominence in government, society, business, or any institution. He did not come from a ranking family. He was not wealthy. He was no one of “importance,” and He was certainly despised and rejected. He was rejected by the crowds who urged Pilate to crucify Him, and to release Barabbas in His place (see Matthew 27:15-23). Time and time again in the gospels we see religious leaders explaining that Jesus must die and planning to kill Him.
Describing one occasion in Jesus’ ministry, John writes,
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. John 7:1
Matthew describes an occasion when Jesus healed a man’s hand on a Sabbath. Following Jesus’ exchange with religious leaders, Matthew writes,
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. Matthew 12:14
Later, near the end of His earthly ministry, shortly after Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, John describes one of the accounts as follows:
Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death. John 11:45-53
And Matthew records the following event taking place two days before the Passover:
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the courtyard of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” Matthew 26:3-5
Jesus was certainly despised and rejected. He was also “acquainted with infirmity.” Think of all the people He healed. Isaiah continues discussing infirmities in the next verse writing,
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4
While Scripture records lots of detailed accounts of Jesus healing people, in other places God’s holy word reveals that Jesus healed far more than the detailed accounts describe. Luke writes,
He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Luke 6:17-19
On that occasion Jesus healed everyone in the crowd who was in need of healing. Matthew records a different occasion when Jesus healed everyone present who was in need as follows:
When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Matthew 8:14-17
God’s holy word explains that by healing everyone, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy recorded as Isaiah 53:4. Isaiah continues writing,
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6
Through Isaiah, God explains why Jesus had to suffer and be crucified. He received the punishment we each deserve. Isaiah continues writing,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:7
When questioned by the high priest, Jesus remained silent (see Matthew 26:63). When questioned by the chief priests and elders, Jesus remained silent (see Matthew 27:12). When questioned by Herod, Jesus remained silent (see Luke 23:9). When questioned by Pilate, Jesus did not answer him (see Mark 15:5 and John 19:9). Isaiah continues writing,
By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. Isaiah 53:8
The entire trial was a perversion of justice. Criminal justice requires due process and impartial judges. Jesus had no advocate, no opportunity to call witnesses, no opportunity to examine the witnesses called by the prosecution, and the religious leaders who sat as judges were the same men who plotted to kill Jesus. After meeting with Jesus, Pilate knew He was innocent. He knew there was no reason to execute Jesus, yet He yielded to the wishes of the mob calling for crucifixion (see Matthew 27:15-26). It was all a perversion of justice, exactly as foretold.
Isaiah continues writing,
They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Isaiah 53:9
As foretold, Jesus was buried in a wealthy man’s tomb. Each of the four gospels records Jesus’ burial. Following is Matthew’s description:
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. Mathew 27:57-61
Isaiah continues writing,
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:1-12
This takes us back to the beginning. On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus taught and taught and taught more. And according to Luke, His final teaching that evening before walking to the garden where He would be arrested, Jesus quoted Isaiah 53:12 and said, “For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me… indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled” (Luke 22:37). Indeed, it was and is.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors; He was among the lawless; He was counted as a sinner because He was our substitute. The perfect, pure, sinless One bore our sins. He bore our sins and took the punishment we deserve so that we might be cleansed. God’s holy word explains it like this.
For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Corinthians 5:21
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” – in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25
Over 600 years before Jesus’ arrest, torture and crucifixion, God foretold the events through Isaiah in shockingly graphic detail, and just as the events were beginning, Jesus explained to the disciples that the prophecy was being fulfilled in Him. And it happened exactly as foretold.
God is truly in control and Jesus is truly God. Praise His holy name. Amen.