The Worst/Best Friday

I have sung multiple songs that were written from the text in Isaiah 53 and have read from it over the past couple weeks. This has become one of my favorite passages and I want to share a few verses today, because it is speaking about the Friday that we celebrate today.

Isaiah 53:3-5:

"He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and by his stripes we are healed.

This is the gospel story. This is the horrible picture of what happened on that day. Look at how graphic this is. The writer talks about Jesus' relationship to man on that day. We were enemies, yet he took our sin and died from us, while we spit upon and mocked him.

The end of verse four says that Jesus was "smitten" by God. First of all, smitten does not mean what happened to you in the first grade when a classmate ran up and kissed you on the cheek. As it says later in verse four, God crushed Jesus. It is an extremely bold term that emphasizes destruction.

Hidden in that verse is the worst part of that day. When the Bible says that Jesus was smitten by God, it implies the reality that Jesus was cut off from his heavenly Father. The boiling wrath of God that we have raised through every "little" sinful deed was unleashed on that day. Jesus experienced the worst part of hell on that cross; being cut off from God.

But that day wasn't all dark. No! Look at verse 5. "Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his stripes we were healed." Because Jesus went through that, because of his unexplained mercy and his undeserving grace, we are counted as righteous before God! God looks at us and says "you are clean" and He will not judge us!

This is our salvation and we should be excited! We should NOT be passive about our gospel. If you hear this story, and don't get excited, you do not understand the gospel. You do not understand how sinful you are. You do not understand how offensive your sin is to God. And you do not understand your absolute NEED for Jesus Christ as your savior.

When we look at the cross and when we look at this passage in Isaiah, we should be humbled because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. We deserved nothing more than to be tormented in hell away from God's presence for all eternity. But Jesus came down, out of pure grace and love, and said "I'll pay the price, so that you don't have to."

Lord, I deserve nothing, and yet you gave me the best thing I could ever hope for; salvation from sin and death and life with you in heaven. I have nothing to offer and you knew that. You knew that I would sin against you even after I said that I would follow you. Yet, you still saved me out of the goodness of your heart. Lord, this was the worst day for you because of our sin and the punishment that you took for us, but it is the best day for us, because you took it for us. So we praise you! Lord help us to never forget the cross. Help us to never forget what you have done for us. Help us to be grateful and to serve you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Thank you. Amen.