Isaiah gives a short prospect both of the messiah's humiliation and his exaltation.  This passage stands in stark contrast to the majority of the Messianic passages.  Much had been said in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah; much had been foretold.  But, as the queen of Sheba found concerning Solomon, what they shall see in him, when he comes, shall far exceed what had been told them. Christ disappointed the expectations of those who looked for a Messiah according to their fancies, but outdid theirs who looked for such a Messiah as was promised in Isaiah 52 and 53.

Context: Summary of movements within chapter 52 and 53...

• The faith community redeemed and called to rejoice therein, 1 - 6.
• The universal preaching of the gospel, 7 - 10.
• A call to free ourselves from bondage, 11, 12.
• The servant's reign shall be exalted, 13 - 15.
• The incredulity of the Jews; the death of the Servant, and its redeeming effects, 1 - 10.
• The servant's exaltation and glory, ver. 11, 12.
  

The servant's death is portrayed as atoning and redemptive for all humankind:

John Wesley on chapter 53:6-7:

We - All mankind. Astray - From God. Have turned - In general, to the way of sin, which may well be called a man's own way, because sin is natural to us, inherent in us, born with us; and in particular, to those several paths, which several men chose, according to their different opinions, and circumstances. Hath laid - Heb. hath made to meet, as all the rivers meet in the sea. The iniquity - Not properly, for he knew no sin; but the punishment of iniquity, as that word is frequently used. That which was due for all the sins of all mankind, which must needs be so heavy a load, that if he had not been God as well as man, he must have sunk under the burden.

 

 A Case for the Christological interpretation of this passage: The correspondence with the life and death of Jesus Christ is so detailed, that it could not have resulted from conjecture or accident. An impostor could not have shaped the course of events so as to have made his character and life appear to be a fulfillment of it. The writing is, moreover, declaredly prophetic. The quotations of it in the New Testament show: (1) that it was, before the time of Jesus, a recognized part of the Old Testament; (2) that it refers to Messiah (Matthew 8:17' 15:28'Luke 22:37'John 12:38'Acts 8:28-35'Romans 10:16'1 Peter 2:21-25').

The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic interpretation; so universal was that interpretation, that it is simply referred to in connection with the atoning virtue of His death, without being formally quoted ( 9:12, Romans 4:25, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 1:19, 2:21-25, 1 John 3:5). The genuineness of the passage is certain; for the Jews would not have forged it, since it is opposed to their notion of Messiah, as a triumphant temporal prince. The Christians could not have forged it; for the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, are "our librarians" [PALEY]. 

HILLEL maintained that Messiah has already come in the person of Hezekiah. BUXTORF states that many of the modern Rabbins believe that He has been come a good while, but will not manifest Himself because of the sins of the Jews. But the ancient Jews, as the Chaldee paraphrast, Jonathan, refer it to Messiah; so the Medrasch Tauchuma (a commentary on the Pentateuch); also Rabbi Moses Haddarschan (see HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament). Some explain it of the Jewish people, either in the Babylonish exile, or in their present sufferings and dispersion.

Others interpret the servant to be the pious portion of the nation taken collectively, whose sufferings made a vicarious satisfaction for the ungodly. Others, Isaiah, or Jeremiah [GESENIUS], the prophets collectively. But an individual is plainly described: he suffers voluntarily, innocently, patiently, and as the efficient cause of the righteousness of His people, which holds good of none other but Messiah (Isaiah 53:4-6,9,11; contrast Jeremiah 20:7, 15:10-21, Psalms 137:8,9). Isaiah 53:9 can hold good of none other.

The objection that the sufferings (Isaiah 53:1-10) referred to are represented as past, the glorification alone as future (Isaiah 52:13-15, 53:11,12) arises from not seeing that the prophet takes his stand in the midst of the scenes which he describes as future. The greater nearness of the first advent, and the interval between it and the second, are implied by the use of the past tense as to the first, the future as to the second.