Isaiah 53:4-6
The Cross
4 “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6
Why?
In this infamous and often quoted prophetic passage that clearly points to Jesus and the cross, we hear of punishment and sacrifice and misperception. The misperception is alluded to when it says, “yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.” Back then, on Good Friday, you had people fulfilling these words when they said things like, “some king.” They couldn’t see the “bigger picture” of what was being accomplished. They saw some guy who made outrageous claims and was being put to death.
One could ask, “Why the brutality and violence?” Even today, there are people who don’t see it. Maybe even some believers don’t understand or misperceive the purpose of Jesus going to the cross to suffer, bleed and die.
It starts with the reality of God’s holiness. Very simply, God is holy and we are not because of our sins and our sinful natures. But…But God still wanted us to be reconciled with Him. After all the sins, after all the failures, after all the turning away from Him, He is still standing there with His arms open. This is the grace and mercy of God.
So there had to be a way that we as sinners could be reconciled with the Holy God. Because God is both just and merciful at the same time (another Living Water maybe) the justice part had to be fulfilled too. The penalty had to be paid… “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed (5).”
Prophecy and reality were fulfilled when Jesus, the Son of God, willingly went to the cross to accomplish these things. As horrifying and ugly as the reality of the cross was and is, we must look at it especially this week each year.
You see, the cross in some ways is a mirror; at the cross we see the devastation and consequences of sin – yours and mine. Sin is so destructive that from God’s perspective we, all of us fall short and deserve to face the consequences of our sins. It is very much like we are guilty during a trial, but during our sentencing, someone, namely the Son of God, stands up and says, I will take the punishment for _________ (fill in our names). Talk about courtroom drama!
And so that is how we are made whole and healed. Because as awful as the cross was and is, beyond it, the other side of the cross is Jesus’ resurrection and consequently we are made whole and healed. When we are in Christ, in God’s eyes we go from condemned to redeemed; because of Jesus’ shed blood and death on the cross – nothing that we did or could do.
The cross is perhaps the most powerful and meaningful symbol in the world – signifying all at once, defeat and victory, pain and healing, sin and grace, hatred and love, life and death, mercy and justice, strength and weakness, the cosmic and personal, separation and reconciliation.
This is why we talk about “going to cross” or walking with Jesus to the cross this week because we can never even approach understanding Easter and the resurrection and all that it means in life and eternally, until we truly see the cross.
When we truly see the cross, it may “cross” our minds that it could have been us that could have suffered, could have paid the penalty for our sins, could have been separated from God. But it wasn’t us; it was Jesus on the cross…
If you are asking “Why?” about the cross this week, for the first time or as a reminder…it still comes down to one thing – because He loved, loves, us that much.
Amen.
Discussion Questions
- In what other ways have you understood God’s holiness and our sinfulness? Have they been helpful or not and why?
- In what ways can you look at the cross differently this week?
- If you don’t already, what is keeping you from believing that God loves you as much as is described above?
- How might your Easter Sunday be different after hearing all of this?
Living Water 