Ready for some deep thoughts? This morning I was reading a passage from Isaiah 53 out of the Message Bible…and WOW it moved me. See the entire Old Testament passage is a look into the future and a depiction of the Messiah who would one day come. It depicts the scene of the crucifixtion in great detail and literally describes what Jesus went through on the cross. That prompted me to read the actual accounts of the crucifixiton from the four Gospels in the New Testament. The story. The betrayal. The cruel death. The pain he suffered in his body. The emotional turmoil he must have suffered. All for us. All for the things we would face. And the truth is: He did enough.
What he did was enough to cover anything we’d face. What he suffered was greater than what we would ever encounter. Physically. Emotionally. Relationally. He did enough. When we face problems we know that what he did, and WHY he did what he did were enough. Reading this made my heart swell with faith, with thankfulness, with hope. Nothing is impossible. No problem we face is greater than his sacrifice.
Read this passage:
Isaiah 53
1 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
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.
7-9He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.
10Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
