It was Christmas morning and my five siblings and parents had just emptied the contents of six silly string cans on one another in the span of less than five minutes. As we wiped the tears of laughter from our eyes and recovered our composure, I knew we had just added another memory to the stockpile of Wishall family Christmas experiences.

During my formative years, I experienced Christmas traditions in the heart of America (Missouri) in a season of relative peace and religious freedom. As the oldest of six children, raised in a stable, two-parent Christian home—with a mother and father who wanted us to make fun family memories while always remembering “the reason for the season”—I have a veritable gold mine of such experiences from which to draw.

Perhaps you do as well.

But what if you don’t?

Could you start this year? Does it matter if you do?

Only a Positive Attitude or Something More?

While the term “Christmas” is a compilation of the words Christ and mass, referring to a worship service marking the birth of Jesus Christ, in America Christmas is a marketing-saturated, commercialized extravaganza. Retailers’ entire existence can hinge on the success or failure of their holiday sales, earning the period from October–December the title “The Golden Quarter.”¹

1. The label appears widely in UK and international trade commentary and is closely linked to the long build-up to Christmas. See Mohamed Dabo, “Golden Quarter in Retail: How a Seasonal Surge Became a Year-Round Strategy,” Retail Insight Network, October 15, 2025, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/golden-quarter-retail-seasonal-surge-081108380.html.

Many “Christmas” experiences are divorced from Jesus and spirituality altogether, leaving a glut of sugar, evergreen needles, and smelly Santa suits in their wake. For many, Christmas is more about cultural expression than religious observance.² The Christmas season equals a period in the year marked by attempts at increased cheerfulness, gift-giving, and time spent with friends and family, before reality sets back in come January.

2. Nine in ten Americans say they celebrate Christmas, but only 46% say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious (rather than cultural) holiday according to a Pew Research Center survey. See Michael Lipka and David Masci, “5 Facts about Christmas in America,” Pew Research Center, December 18, 2017.

As children age, many conclude that Christmas is more fantasy than reality. Parents may maintain a few traditions when their kids reach high school—seeking to maintain some semblance of happiness and cheer, even if such happiness is mostly forced. It can feel like Christmas is something special for kids, but nothing more.

Are the traditions of Christmas largely a marketing scheme or commercial extravaganza, or is something more meaningful going on? What is Christmas actually about? And are only children able to fully experience that meaning?

Christmas is Only for Kids

In this article, I will show that Christmas is only for kids—meaning that the purpose of the incarnation and mission of Jesus Christ is to reveal and carry out the redemptive plan of His good Father, which only those who have faith like a child can participate in and enjoy to the fullest. What makes up faith like a child? Trust, curiosity, teachability, and the ability to be awed—all characteristics that enable one to enjoy Christmas and to live with lasting hope and joy in every season of the year.

Fostering Trust in the Incarnate King

Christmas centers on the birth of Jesus Christ, sent into the world by God the Father to seek and save the lost. Jesus—God the Son incarnate—entered the world physically and bodily in a manger in Bethlehem and years later physically and bodily rose from the dead. In between those events, He perfectly, constantly, and completely kept God’s law and died on a cross as the personal atoning sacrifice for God’s people.

Through these actions, Jesus opened the way for orphaned sinners to become adopted sons or daughters in His family. Jesus taught that only a person with faith like a child can enter His kingdom and family (Matt. 18:3, Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17) and that any person with such faith may come in (Acts 2:21, Rom. 10:13, Rev. 22:17).

God’s Word teaches that we grow in Christ the same way we receive Him—by continuing in faith (Gal. 3:1–6, 5:6, 13–14; Col. 2:6–7) and adding regular, consistent obedience to the mix with the Spirit’s help (Phil. 2:12–13). As the old children’s song says, “trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

How can we foster such trust? Kids can teach us adults a thing or two:

• Kids inherently extend trust more than adults. Kids have less experiences that threaten to jade their perspective and more readily take things at face value.
• In healthy home situations, kids particularly trust their parents, believing they will be true to their word and have their best interests in mind.
• If children cannot understand something about God and His ways, they more readily conclude that they do not comprehend fully, instead of ruling out the possibility that God’s knowledge exceeds their own.

What characterizes adults who display similar faith?

• Taking God at His Word by believing His promises, not letting a cynical spirit develop if immediate circumstances are not favorable.
• Building and strengthening an instinct to trust God when a matter exceeds the limits of their finite understanding.
• Maintaining trust over time by knowing and believing that God is at work in all things for their good and His glory.

Christmas displays and declares the trustworthiness of God, as we celebrate the culmination of God’s redemptive plan for the ages.

Consider Isaiah 49:6:

He says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’

This servant is Jesus—the Messiah that God’s servant Simeon had waited his whole life to see:

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29–32)

The Christmas season offers extended time to sing about Christ’s coming, remember why He came, and celebrate in response. As we do these things, we foster trust in our Savior and allegiance to our King.

Cultivating Curiosity in the Inexhaustible Savior

Children are inherently curious. Finding a parent who has not been wearied by their eight-year-old’s incessant questions is harder than finding a pre-conversion Ebenezer Scrooge in December. Kids explore, go on adventures, create, and develop—all without even leaving their room.

When kids wonder about something, they ask until they get a satisfactory answer; when they want to understand something better, they jump right in and experience it. To be a kid is to be curious! What can adults learn from this?

• Jesus said ask, seek, and knock, for the one who asks will receive, the one who seeks will find and to the one who knocks the door will be opened (Matt. 7:7–8).
• Paul prayed that the Ephesian church would grasp the full extent of Christ’s love, worshipping the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all that they could ask or imagine (Eph. 3:14–21).
• The Christmas season gives us devoted time to look back at the wonder of the coming of Christ on the human scene—the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Christmastime provides a great opportunity to explore the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8–9). Carols replete with rich doctrine and advent devotionals that trace the promises, types, and themes of the Old Testament fulfilled in the Christ of the New Testament make family worship particularly fertile ground during this time of year.³

3. Our family has used a Jesse Tree tradition, to walk through stories from the Bible that highlight the overall storyline of Scripture culminating with Christ. See “The Jesse Tree: A Guide to the Advent Tradition,” Faithward.org, accessed December 17, 2025, https://www.faithward.org/jesse-tree/. Other excellent devotionals include Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Dawn of Redeeming Grace: Daily Readings for Advent (Charlotte, NC: The Good Book Company, 2019); Paul David Tripp, Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024); John Piper, Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020).

When we approach God with curiosity, seeking to know and be reminded of the glorious vistas of His character and works, revealed throughout history and seen most fully in Jesus Christ, we honor Him as the one who made us and is worthy of our curiosity and devotion.

Tending to Teachability

As fallen human beings now redeemed, spiritual growth requires teachability. Given the character and virtue of our Teacher, Savior, and Example, Jesus Christ, this should not surprise us:

• Christmas reveals a Savior who entered the world as a babe, untaught and untested in His humanity.
• Jesus learned and grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52), applying God’s Word to every situation (Heb. 5:8–9).
• Through suffering Jesus learned obedience, successfully navigated all of life’s challenges (Heb. 2:10, 14, 18), and is our example to follow in being humble learners (John 13:13–17).

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5–6), therefore, whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:4). Followers of Jesus are learners by definition.⁴ To grow spiritually, we must cultivate teachability.

4. The primary meaning of disciple in New Testament Greek, mathētēs, is learner.

The activity of gingerbread house construction illustrates the importance of teachability. Anyone who has tried their hand at this holiday craft—using graham crackers and royal icing—knows it is no simple task. There is a process to be learned and steps to be followed:

• Constructing the bones of your house and letting the icing harden before you try to decorate.
• Strategically placing support crackers and pillars within.
• Applying decorations with an icing-then-candy-“brick-by-brick” approach instead of a covering-your-house-in-icing-then-decorations approach.

My wife and I have passed on this tradition to our progeny. Of our four kids, those who received our instruction most readily were the ones who basked in the joy of successful construction most effectively.

Kids, when trained by caring and knowledgeable people, are remarkably teachable. When kids ask questions, they genuinely want to know the answer. They readily receive instruction, soaking in new concepts like a sponge and applying new training as eager padawans.

Jesus is the most knowledgeable Teacher there is: He spoke with authority, amazing His hearers (Matt. 7:28–29, Luke 4:32). Solomon’s wisdom paled in comparison to Christ’s (Matt. 12:42), one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2–3). Jesus equally personifies care: He had compassion on the crowds in need of a shepherd (Matt. 9:36), gave his life for the sheep (John 10), and has a gentle heart that moves towards sinners and sufferers in time of need.

To have childlike faith is to be humble and teachable.

Abiding in Awe-ability

The traditions of Christmas have the greatest effect on kids because they have an at-the-ready ability to be awed. All it takes is a drive through a Christmas-light laden neighborhood to solicit a chorus of oohs and aahhs that puts parents watching their kid’s ballet recital to shame. The anticipatory joy experienced when the number of presents with your name on it under an evergreen tree (or artificial replica) increase adds to the experience.⁵

5. I leave the application and explanation of the Santa Claus tradition up to the decision of wise and informed parents. We choose to tell our kids about the historical Saint Nick and make them aware of fictional versions of the same, because we want them to know gifts come from us, keep the spotlight on God not a man, and foster truth telling. Other Christian voices maintain that preserving the story of Santa for as long as possible fosters a child’s imagination and sharpens, not dulls, one’s experience of God’s good gifts.

Awe at the most wonderful source—the God of the universe—peppers the Scriptures:

• When he looks at the night sky, David wonders at the majesty of God (Psalm 8).
• Psalm 139 expresses amazement at the ever-abiding presence of God and His inexhaustible knowledge.
• Isaiah 40 remarks that because God knows the stars by name, he certainly watches over each of His children with care.
• At the end of the most comprehensive theological section of Scripture (Romans 1–11), Paul bursts forth into praise of the unsearchable and glorious God (Rom. 11:33–36) before turning to our response of worship (Romans 12–16).
• Jesus Christ “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Heb. 1:3) is the one worthy to open the scroll (Rev. 5:1–4, 9), the one worthy of all our worship.

Christ’s incarnation left people in wonder and awe: Shepherds worshipped, pagan wise men bowed down, Mary treasured it all in her heart, and Simeon and Anna rejoiced at the coming of God’s Messiah—all before Jesus was a month old. Every person with faith like a child joins their number as worshippers of the King.

Christmas is for Kids

In his first epistle, the apostle John suddenly bursts forth in praise for the wonder of being part of God’s family:

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)

As God’s sons and daughters living in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4–6) we possess the already of Christ’s kingdom now, while we wait for the not yet of its future consummation. There is much to amaze us now and even more as we look to our future (1 Pet. 1:3–5) and set our hearts and minds on Christ (Col. 3:1–4).

Children can most readily participate in Christmas traditions because they inherently trust, are curious, teachable, and awe-able. May we all engage in life with such childlike faith in Jesus this Christmas season—and every other season of our lives.

Twenty years, one marriage, four children, one seminary degree, and years of pastoral ministry later, I have come to see with ever-increasing clarity how true that statement is.

The cross and resurrection are the centerpiece of the life work and accomplishment of Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate. Jesus’s death and resurrection followed His perfect life, in which He completed the work God gave Him to do (John 17:4, Heb. 2:10, Heb. 5:8–9). The New Hampshire Confession sums up well the impact that Jesus’s person and work has for God’s people: “he is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Savior.”

This month, Christ Over All is looking at sightings of the cross in the Old Testament, taking time to look at passages and theological themes that foreshadow Calvary. In 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, Paul spoke of the death and resurrection of Christ as matters of “first importance,” that Jesus carried out “in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is one such passage of Scripture, and my task is to feature this text’s revelation of the substitutionary atoning work of the servant of the Lord. I will do this through a look at the text’s epochal and canonical contexts, a review of the passage’s immediate context, the New Testament authors’ use and interpretation of it, and Jesus’s application of the passage to the institution and observance of the Lord’s Supper.

Buckle your seat belt: what follows is a glorious redemption road for God’s people!

Isaiah’s Epochal and Canonical Context

What did Isaiah 53 mean to the nearly exiled Jews to whom it was first written? Can its context then enhance our understanding of it now? Yes—abundantly so! We begin therefore by looking at key aspects of the epoch (or era) of redemptive history the text was written in and elements of the passage that carry forward central, recurring themes from earlier Scripture.

The Mosaic Law—which God gave at Mount Sinai (Exod. 20:1ff) following His deliverance of His people from Egypt—included blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Knowing the corruption of fallen humanity, God graciously built into this law/covenant the provision of blood sacrifices to cover sin. This atoning provision is seen most significantly in the institution of the Passover (Exodus 12) and the annual observance of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).

The people of Israel would prove to need such atonement. Story after story in the Old Testament shows God’s people testing his patience and proving his faithfulness by their repeated sin and open disregard for him and his promises.

The Servant of Isaiah

Isaiah 1–39 records the consequence of Israel’s repeated, flagrant disobedience: exile from the Promised Land. Hope is not lost, however: Isaiah 40–55 speaks of a future return from exile for God’s people. This promised return would have two stages: one physical—release from captivity (Isa. 42:18–43:21) and the other spiritual—forgiveness of sins (Isa. 43:22–44:23).[1] This work of redemption is accomplished by and through a figure revealed as the servant of the Lord.

1. Peter Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, “The Atonement in Focus,” Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2007, 21.

Servant Songs in Isaiah

Four passages in Isaiah in particular—known as the Servant Songs—provide details about the servant who would come to deliver God’s people:

• Isaiah 42:1–9 – The Holy Spirit empowers the servant (Isa. 42:1); the Lord will give Him as a covenant for the people (Isa. 42:6, see also 49:8).
• Isaiah 49:1–13 – The servant is Israel (Isa. 49:3); the servant will also save Israel, and not just people from ethnic Israel – through the servant God will extend salvation to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).
• Isaiah 50:4–9 – The servant is not rebellious, but obedient (Isa. 50:5), setting his “face like a flint” to do God’s will (Isa. 50:7).
• Isaiah 52:13–53:10 – The servant brings redemption to God’s people through his substitutionary sacrifice. This redemption has two primary aspects: 1) the forgiveness of sins—which includes the permanent removal of offenses—and the accounting of righteousness (Isa. 53:4–6, 11–12).

In Isaiah 52:13–53:12, Isaiah describes the physical and spiritual deliverance to come with the Hebrew word ga-al. In English, the word is translated redeem, meaning “to buy back.”[2] This passage centers on the redemptive work of the servant of the Lord, buying back God’s people from slavery to sin and death.

2. Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song, 21.

Immediate Context and New Testament Authors’ Use and Interpretation

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 is quoted seven times and alluded to another 34 times in the New Testament, across the gospels, Acts, letters and Revelation.[3] John Stott, quoting Joachim Jeremias, notes that “No other passage from the Old Testament, was as important to the church as Isaiah 53.”[4]

Peter Gentry provides the following helpful overview of the literary structure of Isaiah 52:13–53:12:[5]

5. Gentry, The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song, 24.

• Stanza 1: Prologue (Isa. 52:13–15)
• Stanza 2: Pains in Life (Isa. 53:1–3) Description
• Stanza 3: For Us (Isa. 53:4–6) Interpretation/Central Explanation
• Stanza 4: Pains in Death (Isa. 53:7–9) Description
• Stanza 5: For Us (Isa. 53:10–12) Interpretation

The first stanza sets up the descriptions and interpretations that follow. Let’s look at some details of these sections and how the authors of the New Testament interpret them.

Prologue: substitutionary work for people of all nations (Isa. 52:13–15)

Isaiah 52:13 says the servant of the Lord “shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.” The gospel author John identifies the “lifting up” of the servant with the humiliation of Jesus on the cross (John 3:14), while Luke focuses on Christ’s exaltation (Acts 3:13). Isaiah 52:13 thus predicts Jesus’s death and resurrection.

As Paul engages in evangelistic work, he quotes Isaiah 52:15 to speak of the spread of the gospel to all nations, “Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand” (Rom. 15:21 and 1 Cor. 2:9). Jesus’s work on the cross opens the gospel offer to all nations: whosoever will may come (Rev. 22:17). Salvation is available to those who believe in Him (John 3:16).

Pains in Life (Isa. 53:1–3)

Paul quotes Isaiah 53:1 in Romans 10:16, noting that some will reject this gospel: “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”[6] In Isaiah 53:2–3, Isaiah calls the servant “a man of sorrows” who was “despised and rejected” by men, which Paul alludes to in his account of Christ’s incarnation in Phil. 2:5–11 (Phil. 2:7 specifically). This “man of sorrows” is beautifully described in the song of that name, written in 1875 by itinerant evangelist Philip Bliss:

6. Romans 10 teaches that the gospel of Christ will spread through verbal proclamation by His followers. Here and elsewhere in Scripture, we see that some will receive that gospel, while others will reject it (Luke 10:1–12, 1 Cor. 2:6–14, 2 Cor. 2:14–16). By implication, we are to share with all people indiscriminately, knowing that God will save some.

Man of Sorrows! What a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Isaiah 53:4–6, the center of this passage, provides one of the most clear and important descriptions in all of Scripture of this Savior’s atoning work.

For Us (Isa. 53:4–6)

Verse 4 says “Surely he [the servant] has born our griefs.” Peter alludes to this verse in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” communicating the idea of substitution. Peter also quotes the beautiful conclusion of Isa. 53:5, “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24b). The healing in view here is first and foremost spiritual in nature as the context of Isaiah 53 makes clear—the servant is pierced for our transgressions (Isa. 53:5). Wounds being healed sometimes has physical healing in view as well (as I’ll consider below)

In 1 Peter 2:25, Peter alludes to the comparison of God’s people to the wandering sheep of Isa. 53:6, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Though we are the ones who have gone astray through sin against a holy and benevolent God, Jesus is the one who bears the punishment for our sin – ultimately by the hand of that God (Isa. 53:6; cf. Acts 2:23, Acts 4:28).

Peter’s interpretation of Isaiah 53 accords with Jesus’s self-description as the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep (Cf. John 10:10–11). Indeed, the central accomplishment of the cross is penal substitutionary atonement from the wrath of God, making God both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).

What about physical healing?

Matthew records Jesus casting out demons and healing the physically sick as a fulfillment of Isa. 53:4 “by his wounds you have been healed” (Matt. 8:17). The New Testament authors interpretation of “by his wounds you have been healed” in Matthew and 1 Peter helps shed light on the nature of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom.

Jesus’s work centered on the proclamation of the gospel and atoning sacrifice on the cross, satisfying His Father’s just wrath against sin and opening the way to restored relationship with Him (Matt. 16:21–23, John 17:22–23; Mark 1:15, 8:31–33; Luke 9:22, John 12:24, John 13:33). Along the way, Jesus did signs that lent credibility to His message and marked the inbreaking of His kingdom, such as casting out demons, healing the sick, even giving life to the dead (Matt. 4:23, Luke 7:22).

God will one day consummate this physical restoration of creation in the new heavens and new earth—where there will be no more tears, sickness, pain or even death (Isa. 65:19–25, Rev. 21:3–4)—a work He accomplishes in and through Jesus (Col 1:20)[7]

7. Pastorally, we must help people understand both that God grants spiritual healing to all who seek it in Jesus, and that He sometimes grants physical healing, while at other times He does not. Pastors are to pray for physical healing (Jas. 5:14–16), and call people to trust God with their physical state all the while knowing that because they are in Christ by faith nothing can separate them from God’s love (Rom. 8:31–39). And we live with the hope that eventually all God’s people will receive physical healing as well through bodily resurrection from the dead.

We are not guaranteed physical healing in this life—though God does sometimes choose to work in that way. We are, however, guaranteed such healing in the life to come, when God will unite our souls with our physical bodies in a glorified and perfected state (Rom. 8:23, 30; 1 Cor. 15:42–44).

In Isa. 53:7–9, we learn more about the perfection and innocence of the servant of the Lord who takes the punishment God’s people deserve.

Pains in Death (53:7–9)

The servant is taken away “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Isa. 53:7) and killed for the transgression of God’s people (Isa. 53:8). When John the Baptist lays eyes on Jesus, he alludes to this passage, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Revelation 5 also alludes to Isaiah 53, describing a lamb who had been slain to ransom a people for God by His blood (Rev. 5:6, 9). This servant, this lamb, is innocent of any transgression—as 1 John 3:5 attests, “in him there is no sin” (citing that phrase in Isaiah 53:9).

The point is clear: the type of the spotless Passover lamb (Exodus 12) is fulfilled by the antitype of Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God (1 Pet. 3:18). All through the Old Testament, God covers His people’s sin through repeated blood sacrifices (Gen. 3:21; Lev. 4:3–4, 13–17, 22–26; 16:11, 15–16). The author of Hebrews explains that Jesus enables the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22) through a one-time blood sacrifice (Heb. 9:26, 10:12) that accomplishes eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12).

Charles Wesley sums up well the accomplishment of the Lamb of God:

The Lord in the day
Of his anger did lay
Our sins on the Lamb, and he bore them away;
He died to atone
For sins not his own,
The Father hath punished for us his dear Son.

In Isa. 53:10–12, we see that the undeserved punishment of the servant results in undeserved righteousness for God’s people.

For Us (53:10–12)

Mark alludes to Isa. 53:10–11 in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Cf. Matt. 20:28). The ransom Jesus paid goes to satisfy the record of debt sinners have before God (Col. 2:13–14).

Isa. 53:11 says the impact of the death of the servant, the righteous one, is that it will “make many to be accounted righteous.” Paul picks this up in Romans 5:15 and 5:19, noting that while guilt and a corrupt nature were transmitted to all people through the first Adam, the free gift of righteousness is transmitted to all who believe in Jesus, this second and better Adam.

Paul also alludes to the servant “making many to be accounted righteous” in Romans 4:25 when he speaks of Jesus being “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” This justifying work gives us peace with God through Jesus (Rom. 5:1). While we were still sinners, God sent the servant for His people (Rom. 5:8) offering salvation and life to those who deserve the exact opposite.

Finally, we will look at Jesus’s allusion to Isaiah 53 in His institution of the Lord’s Supper and the meaning this gives to this precious and powerful ordinance.

Remembering and Proclaiming the Lord’s Death Until He Comes

When Jesus commands His disciples to take and eat of his flesh and drink of his blood through the sign of the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:19), He alludes to Isaiah 53:12, where Isaiah says the servant poured out his soul to death making intercession for transgressors. Jesus taught this as He sat down to observe the Passover with His disciples, knowing that He was the fulfillment of that annual remembrance (Luke 22:7–15). Jesus commands His disciples to observe the Supper until He returns and invites all of God’s people to the future marriage supper of the lamb (Rev. 19:9).

Every time believers in a local church eat the bread and drink the cup of communion (1 Cor. 11:24–26), we remember and proclaim that the promised servant of Isaiah 52:14, whose appearance would be marred beyond human semblance, has come.

We proclaim that though we have sin, this man of sorrows has taken our place and borne our griefs (Isa. 53:3–4). We remember that He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities (Isa. 53:5). We proclaim that He bore the shame we deserve, so that we who deserve to endure just punishment for our sin, may instead receive the gift of righteousness (Isa. 53:11–12) and through it, eternal life.

In the Supper, we remember and proclaim the central event of human history, the cross of Christ. As we observe the Supper, the physical expression of a spiritual reality, and proclaim these glorious truths, the Holy Spirit applies them to our hearts and strengthens our faith.

Conclusion

It is no wonder that Isaiah 52:13–53:12 occupies such a cherished place in the life of the church. In this central text about the cross of Christ, the Lord promises a remedy for the biggest problem every person faces: separation from Him because of willful disobedience.

God’s remedy is a person; Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate. The antitype of the spotless Passover lamb (Exodus 12), Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice enables forgiveness of sins, something the blood of goats and lambs could never accomplish.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, a work that centers on His atoning sacrifice. That work is done; it is finished. Therefore, we can say with Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54b–55). Indeed, these are matters of first importance.

As I grew up and learned from Larry the Cucumber that God is bigger than the Boogey Man and from Kevin McAllister that the scary sounds in your basement are just your furnace kicking in, my fears subsided. But I still dreaded the thought of growing older, seeing people die, and having to endure the discomfort of funerals, burials, and cemeteries. So, the idea of cremation intrigued me.

Something about burning human remains into a small box of ashes seemed less creepy than burying a box of bones six feet under. Cremation was also cheaper. And it seemed like less of a hassle. Why not cremate?

I set out to answer the question, “Does God care if we burn or bury the dead?” I learned that He does.

In this article, I will argue for burial as a better option than cremation for people who desire to give testimony to the fact that Christ is Lord over all. I will survey the biblical witness on the importance and meaning of burial and physical resurrection, provide some brief historical notes, address a couple key objections, and then offer a final exhortation.

Old Testament Survey Says: Burial is a Display of Faith

The Bible teaches that people are made up of two distinct parts, body and soul/spirit.[1] All of God’s creation is good (Genesis 1), which necessarily includes the human body. While people are made up of two parts, Scripture’s emphasis is on the unity of the human person. Genesis 2:7 says that God formed man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a “living soul.” Louis Berkhof says rightly that “every act of man is seen as an act of the whole man. It is not the soul but man that sins; it is not the body but man that dies; and it is not merely the soul, but man, body and soul, that is redeemed in Christ.”[2]

1. Some Christians argue for a trichotomist view of the human person that further separates soul and spirit into distinct elements. However, the overwhelming evidence of the Bible is for a dichotomist view that puts everything in the category of material and non-material, with a greater emphasis on the unity of the two to form one being (Gen. 2:7; Luke 1:46-47; 1 Pet. 3:19; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 6:9, 20:4; “body and soul”—Matt. 6:25, 10:28 “body and spirit”—1 Cor. 5:3, 5).

2. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 4^th revised and enlarged edition, 1993, 192.

As people, we act as embodied souls or ensouled bodies, bearing responsibility before our Creator for everything we do, including how we treat our body in death.

Burial in the Lives of the Patriarchs

Throughout Genesis, there is a consistent emphasis on both the burial of the patriarchs and the value the patriarchs put on burial—even at a time when cremation was possible.

• Genesis 23 records Abraham’s purchase of property for the burial of his wife Sarah within the land God promised Him (Gen. 23:4, 19). As a sojourner from a foreign country, Abraham did not yet own any property in the land so his focus on finding a place for burial heightens the text’s emphasis on the subject.

• When Jacob was about to die in the land of Egypt, he exhorted his sons to bury him in the land given to Abraham (Gen. 49:29-31).

• Joseph expressed a similar desire to his brothers, making them take an oath to also bury him in this promised land (Gen. 50:25).[3]

3. The author of Joshua tells us that Joseph’s bones did eventually reach that destination (Josh. 24:32)—quite a remarkable feat considering his burial followed Israel undergoing 400 years of slavery and forty years in the wilderness!

Why did Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph give such attention to what happened to their bones? It would have been far simpler to burn them, or in Joseph’s case to leave them where they originally lay. Hebrews 11 says that Abraham’s trust in God’s promises is reflected through the belief that though he would pass into the ground, one day God would raise him to life in a better country (Heb. 11:16). Indeed, Abraham willingly offered Isaac as a sacrifice, believing that God was able to raise his son of promise from the dead (Heb. 11:19).

Hebrews 11 also says Jacob and Joseph acted in faith; Jacob by blessing his sons (Heb. 11:21) and Joseph by giving directions concerning his bones (Heb. 11:22). These men thus viewed care for their bodies in death not as a merely practical decision, but one that expressed faith. Daniel 12:2 confirms that God’s people in the Old Testament believed in life beyond the grave, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Absence of Burial: A Mark of Divine Judgment

In contrast, in the Old Testament an absence of burial at death, including the burning of a body by fire, is a mark of judgment:

• During the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah, judgment against God’s people is born out through their dead bodies being food for the birds of the air (Jer. 7:30-8:3).

• During the reign of the evil king Manasseh in Judah, the king burned his son as an offering to false gods (2 Kings 21:6). Josiah took the bones of the priests who led Israel into evil and burned them on the altars as a mark of judgment (2 Kings 23:16–20).

• Who could forget the iconic judgment against Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 21:23–24? “‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.” Indeed, not one bone of Jezebel’s body ever graced a grave.

The Old Testament witness connects cremation with either judgment or idol worship, contrasted with burial’s pronouncement of faith in God’s promises. The care and effort it takes to bury someone was well worth the effort to God’s people at that time.

New Testament Survey Says: Bodily Resurrection is Foundational to Christian Hope

The New Testament provides several examples of burial as the standard practice of God’s people as well. And as God’s plan of redemption progresses into the New Covenant era, faith in future hope crystalizes in confidence in future bodily resurrection modeled after Christ.

Gospels: In Matthew 14:12, the disciples of John the Baptist buried him and let Jesus know they had done so. Jesus tells Lazarus to walk out of his tomb and he does, demonstrating he was buried, not cremated (John 11). Most significantly, Jesus Himself was buried following His death: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus made sure of this (John 19:38-42).

Jesus taught that resurrection would follow burial, with some resurrecting to life and others to judgment (John 5:28–29). Jesus declared that He is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live forever, even though he dies (John 11:25). Matthew tells us that when Jesus rose bodily from the dead, many bodies of the saints rose as well (Matt. 27:52).

Acts/Epistles: After Stephen was martyred, devout men buried him (Acts 8:2). Paul extends hope to those facing such martyrdom for their faith in Corinth by noting that the life of Jesus will be manifested in their flesh (2 Cor. 4:11). Romans 8:11 says that the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, “will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Cf. 1 Cor. 6:14).

1 Corinthians 15 provides the most extended teaching in the Bible on the importance of burial and its connection to the doctrine of bodily resurrection:

• Paul says that Christ’s burial and physical resurrection from the grave are matters of “first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3–4).

• If Christ has not been raised, Christian preaching is in vain and our faith as well (1 Cor. 15:14).

• If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised and if Christ was not raised then sin and death are still victorious (1 Cor. 15:56). The nail marks visible on Jesus’ post-resurrection body show that it was the same one that hung on the cross.

1 Corinthians 15 teaches that Christ’s resurrection is the prototype and forerunner of hope for God’s people in life after death, a hope that will not disappoint (Rom 5:5).

The witness of the Old and New Testaments agrees: those who place hope in God’s promises hold to a confident expectation of life after death. Cremation communicates death is the end of the line, while burial expresses confidence that though God’s people die they will live again in bodily form just as Christ does.

Culture’s Influence on Burial and Cremation

Cremation is not a modern innovation. This postmortem practice was typical among Indo-European people and in North America prior to the arrival of Christianity. Ancient Greeks and Romans often practiced cremation.[4] Hindus and Buddhists have burned their dead for centuries. Hindus cremate because of their belief in reincarnation, the idea that when a person dies their soul is liberated from their body and reborn as a different form.

4. Donald Howard, Burial or Cremation: Does it Matter? (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2001) reprinted 2021, 12.

In contrast, when Christianity has historically taken root in a culture, so has the practice of burial. Francis Schaeffer says that the spread of Christianity across Europe can be established by studying its cemeteries: the Romans burned their dead; Christians buried theirs.[5] Timothy George agrees, “As the catacombs in Rome attest, the early Christians insisted on burying their dead. Christian gravesites were called coemeteria (cemeteries), which literally means ‘sleeping places,’ reflecting belief in a future resurrection.”[6]

5. Howard, Burial or Cremation, 13, citing Francis Schaeffer in How Should We Then Live? (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 1983).

6. Timothy George, “Cremation Confusion,” from Christianity Today’s Good Question series, 2002.

Addressing Objections

The early church, New Testament saints, and Old Testament patriarchs valued burial. But they might wonder whether the practice is important today. I will address this and other objections below.

God can raise ashes, right? One might object that if God is powerful enough to raise the dead, surely, He can raise ashes just as well as bones. This is certainly the case. Cremating the remains of a loved one will not prevent God from uniting their souls to their bodies at death, just as the mutilation of a loved one’s body from a grenade will not prevent it either.

While this objection has merit, it does not impact the argument for burial as a better testimony to resurrection life than cremation. The question at hand is not can God raise a cremated body back to life, but does God care about what we do with the body after death? The comparison of burial v. burning throughout Scripture strongly suggest He does.

Burial not commanded: A discerning reader might also object that Scripture does not prescribe the practice of burial nor does it explicitly prohibit cremation. This is true. In fact, in one instance, the men of Jabesh Gilead were commended for their bravery in recovering and burning the bodies of King Saul and his sons to prevent further desecration of them by the Philistines (1 Sam 31:11-12).[7]

7. It is wise to note that this is a unique circumstance and even in this isolated instance of burning, burial also took place. 1 Samuel 31:13 says the men of Jabesh Gilead took their bones and buried them and 2 Samuel 21 says David later recovered the bones of Saul and his sons and buried them in the land of Benjamin.

To say that one must practice burial to honor God in death would extend beyond Scripture’s parameters as it contains no command to that effect. But when one considers the Bible’s teaching that 1) the human person is an embodied soul, 2) burial is an expression of belief in the bodily resurrection, and 3) the nearly universal example in Scripture is burial of the dead—these reasons cumulatively point to the superiority of the practice over cremation for those who profess faith in Christ.

Conclusion

A preacher once concluded the memorial service of a beloved saint and directed the funeral attendees to the burial site. Men and women, old and young alike, gathered around the grave in groups, seeking comfort. With the pallbearers ready to lower the body, the minister said to the expectant witnesses, “you are standing on resurrection ground.”[8]

8. Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life: Essential Truths for Becoming Strong in the Faith (Grand Rapids,  MI: Zondervan, 1995), 317.

Within the Christian faith, the grave is just a sleeping place. Death is only temporary. We place our hope in a risen Savior. And burial best gives testimony to that hope.