“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:4-6

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4

Grief and sorrow are what this sin-plagued world offers to all creation under the sun. That grief and sorrow is a result of the inherited sin that is within our nature. That sin is what separates us from God and prohibits the Holy Spirit from living within us. God created us to have fellowship with Him by making us the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ bore our griefs and carried our sorrow upon Himself when He came to this earth to offer mercy, grace, and forgiveness. He felt what we feel, suffered what we suffer, sorrowed over what we sorrow over, grieved over what brings us grief. He came to offer us forgiveness of sin by His own suffering on the Cross, to make the Holy Spirit available to us, and to give us eternal life.

Instead of esteeming Jesus as the Christ, Son of God, Savior, and our Lord, this sin-plagued world considers Him stricken, struck by the hand of God, and afflicted. In other words, instead of coming to Jesus Christ as our Comforter and Helper this world considers Him to be a curse, someone to be despised and rejected.

“Jesus wept.” John 11:35

Jesus wept as He bore the grief and sorrows of those he loved when Lazarus had died. Mary and Martha were the sisters of Lazarus. The same Mary who had anointed the feet of Jesus in preparation for His burial just days after, as described in John 12:1-3. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to Him and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” John 11:21 Jesus responded, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he will live. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 When Mary came, she fell at the feet of Jesus and also said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” John 11:32 Jesus bore her sorrow and grief as He groaned in His spirit, and “Jesus wept.” John 11:35 “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days… [Jesus] cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” John 11:38-39, 43-44 Click for the scripture text of Jesus Wept from John 11:1-44

Jesus says to us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” John 5:24-25

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Jesus Christ was severely wounded from head to toe. A crown was made with long and sharp thorns pressed forcefully onto His head. Spikes were driven through His hands and feet. A spear pierced His side and went into His heart from where water and blood poured out. For our transgressions He was wounded. Because we have all inherited sin and have been separated from God, Jesus was wounded on the Cross. Jesus was offered as the sacrifice to reconcile us to God to bring to us the remission of sin and to give us the Holy Spirit. We know we have the Holy Spirit when we do not speak against Jesus and we say that He is Lord, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3

Jesus Christ was severely bruised and swollen from head to toe. Bruising and swelling came from being struck and beaten, “The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating Him.” Luke 22:63-65 There was bruising and swelling from the crown of thorns. Bruising and swelling all over His back from being merciless flogged with whips interwoven with little sharp objects. Bruising and swelling from His hands and feet from the nails that pierced them. And bruising on His chest from the spear that pierced His side. He was bruised for our transgression.

The image to the left is what the crown of thorns would have looked like. In the middle what the spikes would have been that were used to nail His hands and feet. To the right is the spear that pierced Him in the side.

Jesus was chastised through His crucifixion on the Cross and through that, peace came to us. Not the type of peace that this world calls peace, but the type that brings peace with God. By the atonement for sin He made on the Cross, the curtain separating us from God was torn in two so that through Christ Jesus we could enter into fellowship with God. In that fellowship, we have peace with Him. “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Mark 15:37-38 Because of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to forgive sin, we are now considered to be the temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16

By His stripes we are healed. What were the stripes that Jesus Christ suffered? They were the stripes coming from being lashed repeatedly with a whip inserted with small fragments of metal and bone. The standard practice was to be lashed 39 times, but the Romans could have given Him as many lashes as they desired. He was lashed with a whip of metal and bone fragments before He was led to Golgotha [Calvary] to be crucified. How are we healed by His stripes? Because He took upon Himself what we as sinners rightfully deserve from God. One of the criminals being crucified beside Jesus said to the criminal on the other side of Christ, “…for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:41 Because Jesus Christ took our deserved punishment upon Himself, we are healed of the sickness of sin and death and made well by belief in Him. Through Him, our sin is forgiven and we are given eternal life.

The image below, to the left, shows a whip with barbs interwoven into the whip cords. The image to the right is the damage to the flesh that the whip does. The flesh of the back of Jesus Christ would have been ripped open, bleeding everywhere, and bruising and swelling would set in.

We might wonder how any person could have survived the torment that Jesus Christ suffered just before His crucifixion on the Cross. We know that He was very weak and His life was draining from Him because the Gospels shows a glimpse of that. At first, Jesus was made to carry His own Cross, as quoted, “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him,” John 19:17-18 Somewhere between where He was whipped and Calvary, where He was crucified, someone was made to carry His cross, “Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.” Luke 23:26

The Romans compelled criminals to carry their own cross to the execution site. What they carried was the cross beam of the cross, which weighed 100 pounds or more. The entire cross could have exceeded 300 pounds. By combining the images below, we are given an image of what it was like for Jesus on His walk to Calvary. The image to the left is a cross beam that was carried, and the image to the right is the suffering that Jesus endured on the way to the place of His crucifixion [Calvary].

On the image below, we see two possible routes that Jesus may have walked from His whipping to His crucifixion. Both routes are at least 600 yards long [three football fields]. One view is that He walked from the Praetorium [Antonia Fortress] to Calvary. The other view is that He walked from the “Barracks” to Calvary. The walk from the Antonia Fortress is called the “Way of Suffering” [“Via Dolorosa”] or “Via Crucis” [the “Way of the Cross”]. That way is from where the “Seven Stations of the Cross” originate. Within the “Seven Stations of the Cross”, Jesus is depicted as falling three times on His way to Calvary.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

Sheep that go astray are vulnerable to many dangers from predators that want to eat them. Every person on this earth are like sheep that have gone astray. We are vulnerable to the attacks of Satan that desires to devour us by spiritual ruin as well as ruin us through the desires of sinful flesh, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 Every person has turned to their own way of life, living a life separated from God, they do not walk with Jesus to guide them in their choices, and they are not conscience of the Holy Spirit. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

When Jesus was hanging on the Cross, at that time, the Lord laid the iniquity of all of us upon Him. Every sin that has ever been committed and that will ever be committed was laid upon Him. He became the sin that every single person has ever committed or will ever commit. All of the atrocities in this world are because of sin, and all of those sins were embodied within Jesus when he was suffering on the Cross. That is why Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46

Jesus Christ became sin so that those sins would be crucified on the Cross with Him, and the sins of everyone who believes in Him has been nailed to the Cross with Christ. We have died with Christ on the Cross and now we live with Him by the resurrection of the Spirit. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him…I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 2:20

Sin is a result of unbelief in God, the rejection of Jesus Christ, and opposing the presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ Jesus gave His life on the Cross to forgive unbelief and to give us the Holy Spirit.