Good Friday
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed?
2 For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken.
9 And He put His grave with the wicked, and with a rich one in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased Jehovah to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify for many; and He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide to Him with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.
Isaiah 53
This was prophesied around 700 years before a man from Nazareth was brutally totured and killed in Jerusalem.
It seems very strange that we celebrate His death in such a way – even that we call today Good Friday! How can such violence be celebrated? It is celebrated because of what His sacrifice brought about. It is celebrated because God chose to humble Himself and become a frail human – to be bound by our constraints – and to live out a human life. He willingly allowed humanity to do their worst – and His death was some of the worst we could give 0ut – and He accepted the pain and agony that we put Him through. He took every sin that had ever and would ever be committed upon His body and His Spirit and died in our place… in my place and in your place.
We call this day “Good” because Jesus overcame death, hell and the grave. Because Jesus took our punishment – death and seperation from God the Father – in our place and made a way for us to spend eternity with Him.
Happy Good Friday.
0 comments
Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment