Focal Passage: Isaiah 53:2-12
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are American heroes. Many people know how they adopted Michael Oher, since the story was made into a blockbuster movie, “The Blind Side.” Prior to meeting the Tuohys, Michael bounced in and out of foster care and the streets of Memphis. He was one of 13 children and his mother was unable to properly care for him. The connection of a wealthy white family with a lonely, black, teenage boy was a miracle of God. But why? Why would the Tuohy’s take Michael into their home, to raise and provide for him as if he were their biological child? Leigh Anne Tuohy explains, “Michael was there, he had a need. We had the ability to fill it.” The Tuohy’s made a promise to Michael, a promise to help him become the man that God intended.
Our passage is about a greater promise, one that defies common sense or logic. Isaiah prophesied that God would send a Savior, and we know Him as Jesus. Isaiah presented: (1) He would be nothing extraordinary to look at. (2) He was despised by the religious elites. (3) He bore our sicknesses, pain and sin. This is where the promise becomes difficult to understand. Isaiah says that God the Father planned and allowed for His Son to be tormented and tortured. Here are some of his words: “punished, struck down, stricken, pierced, crushed, oppressed, afflicted, taken away, cut off.” It was a promise that no one would look forward to.
Why would God do such a thing? What if we put the words of Leigh Anne in the explanation? “I was there (referring to you and me), I had a need. We (God the Father and Son) had the ability to fill it.”
We all make promises. Some we keep and some we don’t. Some are important, and some not so much. The promise of God, though similar to the one made to Oher – who now plays professional football – is a promise like no other.