“He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.” – Isaiah 53:2-6 (The Message)
Did you know that this is a prophecy from the Old Testament? It was written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus. God is cool like that.
I was one of those kids who grew up hearing about Good Friday and the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s easy for me to become jaded to the story and even to His death. I’ve heard it so many times. We’re human, so if we don’t look at things with new eyes every once in a while, we get bored. It’s in our nature. So let’s dig deeper.
Did you know that crucifixion was the most brutal way to be killed? When someone was crucified back in Jesus’s time, they were beaten to the point that their intestines, veins, and arteries were laid bare. Then, that person was dragged to a cross or a tree where they were impaled and left to hang there until they suffocated and their heart ruptured. It was a shameful, gruesome, painful death. The only thing worse than being killed so brutally is being mocked while it happened. Jesus was spat on, ridiculed, and taunted. His spirit was attacked just as much as his body was.
God not only piled every sin – from the beginning of time to the end of time – on Jesus; he piled the punishment of ALL OF THOSE sins on him as well. My mind can’t even comprehend the weight and the pain of that.
He did this for ME, was murdered on a cross for ME, in place of ME and all of my crude, irreverent humor and the ways that I’ve hurt people. And he did this for you, too. And your mom and dad and friends and boss and all of the idiots in the comment sections on Facebook. He took the punishment. Because of Him, we are not enslaved by the things we do or have done. He’s conquered all that BS. We’re free!
No guilt in life, no fear in death.
It is finished.
Friday is here. But Sunday is coming.
