BEARING BURDENS

Isaiah 53:4-6; 63:8,9; Galatians 6:2

I have a simple thought, dear brethren, as to bearing and carrying. We see the Lord as the One who is pre-eminent in this. In the first scripture read, the prophet refers wonderfully to the Lord Jesus. Isaiah was given some impression and some insight into His greatness. Although he did not know Him in fulness, how beautifully he speaks about the Lord when he says “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”. How well that describes the Lord in His life here. We can think of Him in His sympathy for many, particularly for those who came to love Him and rely upon Him, but His sympathy for all those that He came across. He took account of the people that came to Him as those who did not have a shepherd (Mark 6:34), and in that sense He was carrying their sorrows. How He felt the infirmities of those that He came into contact with. His compassions and sympathies were expressed. These are real things! The Lord was a real Man, He is a real Man and He sympathised with the people among whom He moved, carrying their sorrows in His spirit. In going towards Jerusalem, He anticipated the judgment that would come on the city, and felt for those who would be involved, who would suffer (Luke 19:41).

When we as believers read Isaiah 53, and particularly when we go over these verses that we have looked at here, we think of what Jesus bore for us. I would like to draw attention to this, that as believers we have to be able to say what He bore for me. Peter says that He “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet.2:24). It is very important for each one of us to be able to say that He bore my sins in His body on the tree. What bearing that was, what a burden he bore. We have a hymn (415)that speaks about that:

‘O Lord, what burdens Thou didst bear!’.

What scorn from man, but what judgment from God! No one was able to bear that burden except Him. He was the only burden-bearer when it came to the matter of sins, my sins. I need Him as the only One who could bear that burden. The burden of the guilt of my sins would crush me and I could not bear it. But there is One who could, and has done, as it says in chapter 63, “he became their Saviour”. He looked upon the plight of men and He became their Saviour. He took up manhood’s form, He came here and was “found in figure as a man” (Phil.2:8), and “in likeness of flesh of sin (Rom.8:3), and was found here in the form of a bondman so that He could bear that burden that no one else could bear. What a matter that is! I am sure it would affect the hearts of each one of us. He was the only One great enough to bear that burden of sins, and He was willing to do so. His sympathy, and His care and concern, and His love were so great that He put Himself in that position as the bearer of my sins. May each of us be able to say ‘my sins’.

Then He would have us to be occupied – not with our sins, because He has dealt with them, and what a wonderful matter it is to be able to say that He has dealt with my sins – but with Himself, as the One who is willing and able to bear our sins. How attractive He becomes as the One of whom the prophet says: “he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”. The expression conveys understanding and sympathy, and endurance too and nearness. All these thoughts would come into our minds as marking the Lord Jesus as the One who bore and who carried. What a wonderful Man He is!

It says “we, we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”. In a time to come, the people of Israel will come to see the truth of this. The elders of the people, in their opposition to the Lord Jesus when He was here, thought that He had been stricken and smitten of God for His transgressions. But Israel will have to come to it that he was wounded for their transgressions and we have to come to that now, that “he was wounded for our transgressions”. What a blessed period this present time is, the dispensation of grace, when we can speak of this One who is the Son of God being “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities”. What peace we have as a result of His chastisement, and what healing as a result of his stripes. That establishes an unshakeable bond of gratitude, affection and dependence between the believer and the Lord Jesus. We can say “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, and what has God done? That sinfulness that we exhibited by doing our own will, that iniquity, He laid it all on the Lord Jesus, the One who did no sin and knew not sin and in whom sin was not (1 John 3:5). He bore that load. We have so much to be thankful to Him for. And we can take account of His deep perfections: it was in the perfection of His sinless manhood that He was able to bear these iniquities of ours. His sympathy and care for us are perfect, and so is His understanding. His perfection was seen in its fulness at Calvary.

He continues to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows now. How many are the sorrows of His people, but we can share them with the Lord Jesus, we can spread things out before Him as a blessed Man and know that He bears and carries. The expression conveys something of His nearness to us, in bearing and carrying our burdens. He lifts the weight and enables us to continue because He is bearing that weight that would otherwise crush us. I am thinking of the circumstances of life, and the cares and the sorrows that come into the pathway of the believer and the Lord is able for that, He is able to bear.

The scripture that we read in chapter 63 is a very attractive one. Again, it directly speaks of the Lord’s earthly people, the Jews; He acknowledges them. “They are indeed my people, children that will not lie; and he became their Saviour”. That was partially fulfilled in the way that the Lord identified Himself with the people of Israel in their history: in the journey through the wilderness. It says, “for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them: (now the rock was the Christ;)”, 1 Cor.10:4. It will be actually fulfilled in a day to come when the remnant of the nation will turn to Him and He will become their Saviour. What a wonderful matter that will be – what a scope the Lord’s carrying and bearing has. It goes on to say that “in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old”. We can again apply that to ourselves: the Lord’s love and His pity enters into His bearing and carrying. I thought that we might take from these two verses that we read, the blessedness of being among those who the Lord carries and bears. The Lord carries and bears certain things as regards humanity as a whole, but only believers in Him have the real, practical experience of the Lord as the One who bears and carries us all the days. I do not think a person who has never come to know Christ could speak about Him bearing and carrying them. If they could speak of Him thus they would believe in Him. But I trust all here are believers in that blessed Man, so that we know something of His blessed service in bearing and carrying us. There is a particular blessing in sharing that experience with others who appreciate Him in the same way. There is something that is worked out collectively in souls who know the Lord’s bearing and carrying service, and who gladly depend on Him and love Him. They share that with one another as having their attention and affection focused on Him, and that is a very blessed matter. It is not available in the company of the world, but it is available in the Christian circle where the blessed One who bears and who carries is appreciated.

He is the perfect example for us all in His blessed manhood; He is to be our Model and that means we follow in His steps. Peter speaks about following in the steps of the One who bore our sins (1 Pet.2:21). Not that we can bear sins; He is the only One who can do that. But He is to be the Model for us in our pathway and that relates to the remark in Galatians; “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ”. That is a feature that is to mark believers; it should be something that is characteristic of us. We are able to place our own burdens before the Lord, and thus know something of His carrying things for us. We can also carry burdens for one another. What does that mean? It would include sympathy for one another, and the capacity to express that in a sincere way, and it would also include the important matter of prayer. We bear up one another’s burdens before the One who is able for them. We might not feel able for one another’s burdens but we can pray about them to the Lord. It is part of the fabric of Christianity, of the Christian life, that we pray for one another in an intelligent and sympathetic way. The Lord loves to listen to and to answer prayers of that kind. When the apostle writes: “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ”, it means that we work out the principles that the Lord has set out for us as an example for us in supporting, comforting and sympathising with one another.

May these few thoughts be for our encouragement, for His name’s sake.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Linlithgow

3 June 2021

Alistair M Brown