Jesus knew. He knew what was coming. He knew the scriptures well.
This passage from the prophet Isaiah reads like someone who witnessed the events of the crucifixion. It was written long before Jesus was born, but it somehow captures some of the tiniest details of what Jesus would experience.
Isaiah 53
Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
5 But 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.
6 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.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
What's good about Good Friday? And Silent Saturday is hard to swallow.
The agony of knowing He took my sins and my punishment troubled me as a child. I felt the depth of my shame and my guilt.
I do not think I really understood it until I read "He Chose the Nails" by Max Lucado. Lucado explains that Jesus took the nails and the cross so I would only experience "the shadow of death." Shadows can be scary, because of the unknown, but they don't hurt us.
Jesus wore our sins like a coat that didn't really fit him. He wore it in obedience to the Father and because with full understanding of our our human condition. That understanding came from living in human skin. He was willing to die to save us.
His love stretched deep and wide... and then he stretched out his arms and died. He faced down the enemy of our souls and built the bridge that would bring us home. That is the "good" in Good Friday.
Saturday may have been silent, but unseen work was being done by the Master Bridge Builder.
Today, I am grateful for Good Friday and Silent Saturday.
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