It’s a word that is not well-known in “church-circles.” Yet, it is a a word that helps understand the nature of sin. In a non-technical sense, miasma, is the pollution that comes from decay. In ancient heroic literature, if an individual takes the life of another, then it is said that miasma has occurred. In this situation, there needs to be an atonement for that transgression. Sin brings the need for purifying. Thus, the one who sins, needs to enter a path of atonement to rectify the miasma.
Yet, the crazy thing about God and the Bible is that it is unique, and tells of a different story. Isaiah presents a different story: One where a servant who has not incurred miasma, but who is willing to suffer for humanities’ transgressions.
I would put Isaiah 53 in my final four bracket of the greatest chapters in the Bible. Naturally, your bracket may look different. Isaiah 53 is not to be rushed. It is to be savored and allowed to marinate in our hearts and souls. It can be read as an executioner’s entry, or a love story of the servant for all humanity. We fall in adoration of the act of the Servant for all people. We are in disbelief as we try to wrap our minds around the fleshly pain incurred for people. In it, if one allows the Spirit to work, we see the need to again admit that we are not as “put-together” as the lies we believe about our spirituality.
When we read Isaiah 53, we again realize that we all have sinned, and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Each one. Every person. You. The person next to you. Me. We all have incurred miasma. Own it. Admit it.
Then, embrace the scourging that the innocent One endured in your place, that you would be free from eternal pain (Romans 6:23).
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