Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
To be “afflicted”, in this context, is to be severely humbled; that is, to be made very low, low enough to endure horrific sufferings. We are told that God The Father “hast made him a little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5, Hebrews 2:7) and that He “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9). The Jewish and Roman authorities thought that He was merely a man, and that they had such power over Him that they could treat Him like a common criminal. But, He had previously told them that “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). His crucifiers didn’t know it, but God had “afflicted” [humbled] Him; thus, permitting them to apprehend, persecute, and crucify our Beloved Lord Jesus Christ according to His Divine Justice. Our Lord’s Sacrificial Death was necessary to Judicially Pay Our Sin-Debt, to satisfy God’s Wrath Against Our Sin. He indeed “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” so “that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” that His Father had given him (John 6:37-40); but, once the Sacrifice was “finished” (John 19:30), He was magnificently “crowned with glory and honour” (Hebrews 2:9); for, He raised Himself from death (John 10:18) and then ascended into Heaven in His Resurrected Body (Acts 1:9). His affliction is “finished”, and now He “is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1). And one Glorious Day, because He was willingly “afflicted” to pay our Sin-Debt, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2)!