November 10, 2020
He and Me
Isaiah 53:4-6
He and Me! It is not very good grammar, perhaps, but it is very good gospel. Let us read what the prophet says putting the emphasis on ourselves.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. We have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on hum the iniquity of ws all.”
Amazing! All for us. But the statement becomes all the more amazing when we turn it around and put all the emphasis on Him. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed… . We have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
As the hymn says, And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can’t take it in, That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.
“He was wounded for our transgressions,” the prophet declares. ‘There we five kinds of wounds we can suffer. There is a contused wound, one that from a blow delivered by a blunt instrument. The Lord suffered that kind of a wound when they blindfolded Him, and some brute of a man drew back his fist and punched Him with all his force in the face.
There is a laceration, the kind of wound produced by a tearing instrument. The Lord suffered terrible lacerations when He was scourged. A Roman scourge was a fearful thing. The victim was bound to a post and beaten with a whip of numerous cords in which were embedded bits of iron or bone. The flesh was torn off the back and the organs exposed. It was not uncommon for a man to die under a scourging,
Then, too, there is a penetrating wound, a wound produced by a sharppointed instrument. The Lord suffered this kind of wound when He was crowned with thorns. The Jerusalem thorn has spikes four inches long. The mocking crown was pressed down upon His head producing a ring of wounds around His brow, deepened by subsequent blows to His head.
There is also a perforating wound, the kind of wound caused when the instrument pierces right through. The Lord suffered this wound when they pierced His hands and His feet.
Finally, there is an incision resulting from a cut produced by a sharpedged instrument such as a knife or a sword. The last indignity done to the Lord’s body was done with a Roman spear. That great gash in His side showed Him to be dead. So we sing:
Wounded for me, wounded for me,
There on the cross He was wounded for me:
There on the cross He was wounded for me:
Gone my transgressions, and now I am free,
All because Jesus was wounded for me.
All because Jesus was wounded for me.
When we sing that, we picture Him receiving all the wounds we can experience. Moreover, He carries the scars of those wounds to this very day, up there in glory, to the wonder of the redeemed and all the hosts of heaven.