Passion of Christ Part XI
Jesus was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt
Jesus was born and raised in an extremely tough environment, and he was despised and rejected by everyone but saved loved by his own parents. They provided him with the strength to survive in today's environment. He was not an attractive person, but he was a perfect lamb. He was a man of sorrows because he understood he was the sacrificial lamb. Priests, Romans, Jews, and his own people all humiliated him to the utmost extent. He was well-known for bearing all of his suffering with grace and praying for his persecutors. Ours were the hardships and sins he bore in order to lead us to salvation. Isaiah 53:2–5 (NJB): Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts; 3 he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard. 4 Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; 5 whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed. Only because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises. We are not looking into Christ's eyes; we are all averting our attention. We all believed he was chastised and afflicted by God. He lacked charm. We were all saved by his punishment, and the suffering and pain on his body cured us.
