All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6 ESV).

Years ago, when my son was considerably younger than he is now, his exact age at the time escapes me, I managed to lose him in a large public area. Every parent’s nightmare. We had gone to a park that had recently opened near our house. The expansive space, surrounded by a walking path, had several picnic pavilions and a fenced play area.

I repeat, the play area was fenced.   

In all fairness I’ll add that within the fenced play area there were several small benches where parents could sit while their children climbed, crawled, swung, and spun on the varied pieces of equipment. For me, the benches provided a perfect spot to sit and read a book while my child ran freely within the fenced play area. What could go wrong?   

The short and somewhat boring version of this story is that my son chose to ignore the fence. He was drawn to a creek that bordered the park, nestled down in a fairly deep ravine that hid him completely from my sight. At some point, I looked up from my book and scanned the fenced area, noting the absence of my son. Perplexity turned briefly to aggravation before becoming anxiety that soon went to panic. 

Shouting my son’s name alerted other parents to my predicament, some of whom were kind enough to join me in the search. After a few moments of searching one of those parents asked me if the kid in the creek was mine.

Just as Jesus’ parable spoke of great rejoicing over the lost sheep and the lost coin, I too greatly rejoiced, mingled with strong words of rebuke and threats of punishment aimed at my son.     

Ignoring the Fence

The basic idea behind the Foundation Series is that the Bible tells us one unified story that leads to Jesus. We’ve been working through the Hebrew scriptures for about twenty-one weeks. Along the way there might have been moments when it was hard to see how the story we’re hearing about each Sunday or reading during the week was taking us to Jeus. This week, however, the connection could not be clearer.

Today we’re looking at the well-known words of the prophet Isaiah that describe a suffering servant. In the picture Isaiah so poetically paints of one who is despised, rejected, and pierced for our transgressions, we see Jesus.

But the prophet also paints a picture of us. We are a wandering people, ignoring the fence, getting lost. Using the familiar image of sheep, a beast not known for its intelligence, Isaiah tells us that we’ve all gone astray. We’ve covered enough of the Bible’s story to understand that ignoring the fence is a sad and repeated theme.

The Bible opens with a man and a woman who ignore a very simple fence around a singular tree. Later in the story God gives his people his law, a clear description of what it means to live as God’ people and bear witness to God in the world. Most of the Old Testament is a tale of how that fence was ignored time and time again.

But the God of the Bible is a faithful and loving parent, searching diligently, pursuing his wayward children. In the Bible’s story the consequences of ignoring the fence are not laid upon the rebellious children. Rather, those consequences are borne by a faithful and obedient son. A servant. A servant who is crushed for our iniquities and pierced for our transgressions.

Isaiah speaks a gospel message, a word of good news: “By his wounds we are healed.”

None are Exempt

This word of good news will come up again before the Foundation series concludes a few months from now. We’ll come back to Jesus and how he bore “the iniquity of us all.”

Maybe for today we need to think about the ways we ignore the fence that defines fellowship with God. Maybe we need to identify both the serious and the small ways we get lured to play in creek beds and ditches that were not designed for our wellbeing.

None of us are exempt. We’ve all wandered, some farther away than others, but we are all sheep who stray.  “We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way” (Is. 53:6 The Message).

Can you think of any fences you’ve ignored? It’s good to remember them – but not dwell on them. We’ve wandered, but we are loved and sought too. And that’s where this story will take us in the weeks and months ahead.

Prayer:

Merciful God, you are patient with us, searching for us and pursuing us when we ignore fences and go our own way. We give you thanks for the gift of your son, the obedient servant who took on the consequences of our wandering.  Give us grace to walk in his steps and make us bold in sharing the good news of hope and healing he offers us, we ask in his name. Amen.