First Christian Church

by Bruce Humes

Pastor

The triumphal entry has come and gone. Jesus has celebrated his last Passover meal with his disciples, where he instituted the Lord’s supper. He has made his way to the garden of Gethsemane, where he agonized in prayer in preparation of what was to come. It is in that garden late at night that Jesus was betrayed by one of his own with a kiss. He was arrested by the multitude and taken before Caiaphas the High Priest for trial. At the trial, Jesus was asked by Caiaphas to “tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God.” Jesus answered, “It is as you said,” which caused Caiaphas to charge him with blasphemy and moved the trial before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish tribunal court, where he was condemned and sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over Judea, for trial.

At this trial, a criminal named Barabbas was released as the multitudes cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and at this request of the crowd, Jesus was condemned and sentenced to death on the Roman cross.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of this gruesome event 700 years earlier when he prophesied that “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant. And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see him, there is no beauty (appearance) that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). Isaiah is speaking of Jesus; in his humanity, he looked no different than the rest of us.

Isaiah continues in verse 3: “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him: he was despised, and we did not esteem him.” This is certainly the case with Jesus. But see in verse 4 how Isaiah prophesies of what Jesus did for us: “Surely, he has (past tense, Isaiah writes 700 years earlier as it’s a done deal) borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains). Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Mankind thought Jesus was being punished by God for his own sins. But Isaiah sets us straight in verse 5 when he prophesies, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement (punishment) for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed.”

The apostle Peter understood this when he wrote in his first epistle, “For this (the suffering those in the diaspora were experiencing) you were called, because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example, that you should follow in his steps: ‘who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.’ Who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes we are healed” (1 Peter 2:21-24). Peter understood what Christ’s death on the cross meant, and when Isaiah and Peter speak of “by his stripes, we are healed,” they are speaking of our spiritual healing. For it’s through his death, burial and resurrection that we as sinners are reconciled, meaning brought to a right relationship with God.

In 1 Corinthians 15:56-57, the apostle Paul writes: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What victory, you might ask? John answers that question for us in 1 John 5:1a,4-5: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (spiritual rebirth). For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God.”

This week is Holy Week for those of the Christian faith. It celebrates the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.Through the resurrection, victory over sin was afforded to all, freeing those who believe and put put their trust in him from the bondage of sin.