See, my servant will prosper;
    he will be highly exalted.
But many were amazed when they saw him.
    His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,
    and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
And he will startle many nations.
    Kings will stand speechless in his presence.
For they will see what they had not been told;
    they will understand what they had not heard about.

Isaiah 52:13-15

What does success look like? Climbing the corporate ladder? Having a close family?

In the passage above, Isaiah describes the coming Messiah as a success – one who will “prosper and be highly exalted”, but the path Jesus took would hardly be what any expected. In the verses that follow, Isaiah tells us that “his face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human.” We know that Pilot had Jesus flogged and the Romans soldiers beat him and placed a crown of thorns on his head, but the image we generally have of Jesus on that day is quite sanitized, isn’t it?

Isaiah paints a very different picture of how Jesus appeared prior to his crucifixion, but Jesus did ultimately succeed in His mission. His resurrection is proof of that and as we are reminded by Paul in his letter to the Philippians –

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Isaiah says that He will “startle many nations” as they consider the impact Jesus has had on the world in the centuries since His resurrection. No matter what people think of Jesus, they cannot deny the change He brought to this world’s civilizations.