When Jesus said, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45), he summed up in these words the essential purpose of his messianic mission: "to give his life as a ransom." It is a redemptive mission for all humanity, because the expression, "as a ransom for many," according to the Semitic mode of thought, does not exclude anyone. The Messiah's mission had already been seen in the light of this redemptive value in the book of the prophet Isaiah, and particularly in the servant of the Lord oracles: "Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed"
(Is 53:4-5).
(Is 53:4-5).
