Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Devotion: The sermon series that we are walking through right now is all about how Jesus has “been there.” Whatever trials we face, emotions we feel, or hardships we endure, Jesus experienced much of the same when He walked this earth. This includes being abused. He was an innocent man, completely free from sin. Simply because He claimed to be God (He was), many saw him as a threat. Whether He was a threat to their own authority or a threat against their religious establishment, they wanted him dead.
Ultimately, one of His disciples turned on Him, and He was arrested. After that, He was tried. And before He went to the cross, He was mercilessly beaten. He had to carry His own cross after being abused and tormented. And then they placed a crown of thorns on His head as they mocked Him. And it wasn’t for anything that He did – it was for what we do.
The Message translation of today’s passage from Isaiah 53 really drives home the innocence of Jesus when He endured all of this.
The 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.
There are two beautiful truths that we can find in this passage. First, if you have experienced abuse, you can take heart that the very God who made you and loves you has been there. He has experienced it. Every heartache and emotion that goes with that abuse, He knows. Second, knowing what He would endure, Jesus still chose to go to the cross for each of us. He took on our sins and bore the price for them. What an amazing Savior He is.
Reflect:
- Have you ever thought much about how Jesus walked through much of what we face?
- Knowing that He is sympathetic to how we feel and what we go through, how does that change your view and relationship of Him?
