“Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured.
We thought of him as stricken,
struck down by God and afflicted,
But he was pierced for our sins,
crushed for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way;
But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.”
Isaiah 53:4-6 (NAB)
Isaiah gave us a clear and prophetic vision of a suffering Messiah, not a military one. God laid upon Jesus the guilt of us all, and that was His plan of salvation all along. Isaiah described this suffering Messiah as a lamb led to slaughter, seized, condemned and taken away. The entire chapter describes so many details of what happened to Jesus on that day, that it would be wrong not to read this entire chapter every Good Friday. Isaiah repeatedly tells us that He did it for us, He bore our pain, He endured oursufferings, He was pierced for our sins and crushed for our iniquity. Jesus took ourplace so that we now have a pathway to heaven. We can be saved not because we are well behaved or deserving people. It’s not because we finally shaped up and achieved a level of moral goodness. We could never be good enough to earn our salvation, nor could we suffer enough for our own sins. We can only be saved through what Jesus accomplished on that day. God provided the way for our salvation and sent His son, who died for the worst of us, and gave Himself up for the least of us, only because He loved all of us. When He died and cried out, “It is finished!” there is nothing we can add to what God has already finished. We commemorate this week as the week that changed the world, and Good Friday is our day to be still and know how much God loved each of us in the world, and gave His only son for us. God’s love doesn’t wax and wane depending on our performance. His love is unchanging and steadfast, and He gives because He loved us first. In the Passover story, when the blood of the lamb was put on the doorpost of every home, God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” He never said “If you are righteous enough then I will pass over you.” Those who He passed over that day, only had to stay inside their homes with the blood on their doors, to be saved. They were all flawed and imperfect people, weak and even sometimes clueless about God, but if the blood was on their door, they were saved. They allowed God to save them in His way, and that is what God shows us through the blood of the lamb. We all need to let God save us His way. Jesus came to be the blood placed upon our eternal doorposts, and through God’s beautiful plan, we accept it by faith, not allowing feelings of low self worth to interfere. We could never enhance or add to His perfect plan. God loves us as we are, and Jesus is our lamb who suffered for us just as we are. God is telling us on Good Friday “ Let me save you My way, and when I see My son’s blood on your door, I will pass over you.” We can stop striving and beating ourselves up, it’s a day to be still and to know His love in a deeper way. If we let Him save us His way, we will taste the perfect love that God always had for us. Merciful and loving God, our Father, thank you for your plan of salvation. Today we can see your great love through the wondrous cross and we surrender ourselves to you. We have no other plea to make on our behalf, and there is nothing else that can acquit us of our guilt, except the precious eternal blood of Jesus on the doorpost of our soul. Amen