Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.[1]
Merciful God of the cross and of the sky, we confess that it was our sin that led Jesus to that pain-filled day. We have turned away from You and failed to love as You command. Forgive us, Lord, and cleanse us through His sacrifice and love. Amen.[2]
Bearing the iniquity of us all
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 NRSV
See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals—so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
Chapter 53
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely, he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice, he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Rufinus of Aquileia
For it is incredible that God, the Son of God, should be spoken of and preached as having suffered these things. For this reason, they are foretold by the prophets, lest any doubt should spring up in those who are about to believe.[3]
Clement of Alexandria
The Spirit gives witness through Isaiah that even the Lord became an unsightly spectacle: “And we saw him, and there was no beauty or comeliness in him, but his form was despised and rejected by people.” Yet, who is better than the Lord? He displayed not beauty of the flesh, which is only outward appearance, but the true beauty of body and soul – for the soul, the beauty of good deeds; for the body, the beauty of immortality.[4]
Theodore of Heraclea
He bore the sum of human evils and every form of transgression, as well as their recompense and punishment. And as if he were our debtor, the only begotten Word of God, coming into the world alongside us, fulfilled every law and all righteousness and did not stumble over sin but received it willingly so as to change our punishment into peace and harmony. For undergoing temptation, he carried our rebukes and punishments, and by faith we make our own his sufferings, and dying together with him we are saved by grace. He was not delivered by force but as an act of obedience.[5]
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Question #27
Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.
Almighty God,we beseech you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.[6]
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Lamentations 1:12 ESV
[2] The Seedbed Worship Planner, 2025-26, p. 101.
[3] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament Volume XI (Isaiah 40-66), p. 157.
[4] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament Volume XI (Isaiah 40-66), p. 159.
[5] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament Volume XI (Isaiah 40-66), p. 164.
[6] Collect for Good Friday, Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019.
