READ: Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT
'He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.'
Isaiah was ministering amongst a people in Exile. They were living in Babylon (modern Iraq) far from home and everything seemed hopeless. They longed to be allowed to return to Jerusalem but as the years passed that seemed increasingly unlikely. In this bleak situation Isaiah boldly proclaims that God has not forgotten them and that he will send a servant who will bring them salvation. As we read these words we see them as a staggeringly powerful prophecy about Jesus, the Messiah.
As we walk towards Easter we need to do so with a renewed amazement at God’s willingness to send his own son into the world. No other person could have done what Jesus did. He alone could take upon himself the sins of the world. Only because he was the perfect Son of God could he bear the full weight of the brokenness and rebellion of humankind and bring salvation.
The miracle of Easter is that it is through the appalling suffering and death of Jesus that we are made whole. God never wanted humankind’s life to be spoilt by sin, but that was our choice. God’s intention was always that we should enjoy our lives to the full and live in close partnership with him. But sin entered the world and spoilt God’s loving plans. Whatever sin touches it damages and disfigures and only by facing up to the full, awful reality of sin could we ever be set free. That is precisely what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He took the full weight of your sin and mine and opened up a new way into the presence of God. As we prepare for Easter let’s do so with a new sense of amazement, gratitude and worship.




QUESTION: How do you respond to the fact that Jesus was willing to be killed to make you whole?
PRAYER: Loving Father, thank you that you sent Jesus into the world and that he was willing to die the most terrible death out of love for me. Amen.

Released on 5 Mar 2021