Lamb of God: Stripes that Heal
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53: 4-6
Last week we looked with awe on a Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, who entered into our broken experience and lived our sorrow-filled life. He is the God who sees and who knows. He is a man of sorrows, acquainted with our grief because he has lived it.
The prophecy of Isaiah shifts from our shared experience of human sorrow to our shared experience of guilt. In verses 4-6, the prophet reminds us that we are not just people to whom bad things have happened. We are people who have willingly run away from our Good Shepherd. The original Hebrew expresses this shift more clearly than our English translations. “Transgressions” means “wilful rebellions” and “iniquities” means the bentness of our fallen, human nature. Isaiah is saying that the Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, was pierced and crushed because he took on the griefs and sorrows that are a consequence of our sins.
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This adds a deeper understanding to the love of God. When our God looked down on us, he saw people that were suffering under the weight of a broken world. He saw poverty, sickness and death and he was moved by our plight. But he saw something else too. He saw suffering caused by the weight of our sin. He saw broken relationships, abuse, violence, greed and pride. He could have turned away. He could have left us to suffer our own consequences, the punishment we earned because of our sin. But he didn’t turn away. He entered in. He came up underneath the burden of our sin and lifted it off of us. He shouldered the load that was too heavy for us to carry. He did this alone.
Do you see how many times the Savior was alone in what he did? He alone bore our griefs. He alone carried our sorrows. He was pierced. He was crushed. Upon his shoulders and his alone, fell the blows of our punishment.
He bore this pain alone, because he alone could do it. Only the Suffering Servant was strong enough to bear the punishment our sins deserved. You and I were breaking under the weight of the consequences of everything we’ve done. We could not bear the weight of divine justice too. Jesus knew the reason he had been born: it was always to be the Lamb of God, who bears the weight of the sins of the world.
He came not only to remove the weight of our sins from us, but to bring something to us. He came to bring us healing and hope. The healing we long for comes through his suffering: “by his stripes we are healed”. (v. 5 in the NKJV)
Jesus suffered many cruelties before he was killed. After a criminal was sentenced by Rome to death by crucifixion, they were scourged. This was a brutal beating administered with a leather whip embedded with pieces of metal and bone. It was intended to weaken the prisoner, so death by crucifixion would be quicker. Many men didn’t make it to their crosses, the scourging was so severe.
This means that when Jesus was tied to a post, he had many opportunities to cry out, “Enough! No more!”. He had multiple chances to change his mind, to decide the price to keep us was too great to pay. He could have uttered one word and a legion of angels would have descended upon Jerusalem to slay every human whose hand was raised against the Son of God that day.
But those words never passed Jesus’ lips. He never once cried out for relief or rescue. Every time the whip cracked, every time the lash tore into his flesh, Jesus had a choice. And every single time he chose to stay. He chose obedience. He chose you. For by his stripes, he knew he was bringing you the healing your heart so desperately needs.
The punishment that brought us peace was laid on him. He willingly took it because we belong to him. We are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. (Ps. 95:7) We are the Father’s treasured lambs, and we had rebelliously wandered from the fold of God. We were lost and scattered–hard headed and heavy hearted. So the Father sent his Son to find every last one of us and bring us home. (see Luke 15:1-7)
If you are lost this Christmas season, know this: the Father is looking for you. You are never alone. He does not want you to bear the weight of your sin. Your older brother Jesus has come up underneath the load of guilt and shame that is crushing you. He is offering you healing and hope. He offers you peace with God and peace for your soul. The stripes on his back are proof that he will choose you again and again without fail.
Come home, little lamb. The Father’s heart is open wide to you. The Son has set a place for you at the Father’s table. The Spirit longs to envelope you into the healing and peace of God. Enter into the warmth of this eternal, everlasting love.