The Easter season is a time when we are reminded in vivid, even graphic, detail what Jesus went through for us.
In our everyday lives, it’s natural for us to be focused on our own struggles, challenges, failures and accomplishments. We are at times blinded by our worldly surroundings and put too much importance on the mundane. All the while Jesus went through hell for us, for our salvation; a living sacrifice to pay the ultimate price for our eternity in heaven. He did it without hesitation, without complaint, without protesting.
One of the most relatable human aspects of Jesus is He did ask God to take this cup of suffering, if it be God’s will (He did so in Luke 22:42). This is something we all can connect to and use as a lesson. When He realized this cup of suffering was in fact God’s will, as foretold in Isaiah 53, He didn’t question it. He accepted it. Such unimaginable bravery, considering what was ahead of Him, such immeasurable and boundless love.
This should put our worldly circumstances into perspective. Jesus literally overcame the world. All of it. Suffering, brutal torture and agonizing death. In so doing, saved us all from eternal damnation and empowered us for today. Every one of us.
Here’s the great news – if He fulfilled His assignment (as great as it was) that means so can you. As you read the scriptures below, see the reality of what Jesus endured and think “Am I really going to worry about the stress of my life today and tomorrow?”
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Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? 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. 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.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Isaiah 53:1-12 NLT
written by Jason Davis
Family Worship Center Devotionals 