Late Post from Good Friday/Easter reflections

Every Good Friday, churches and fellowships across the world gather together in somber remembrance of Jesus’ road to Calvary and crucifixion, often times at these services we come before the foot of His cross, broken by the weight of our own sins and by the weight of His burden. This Good Friday, like many, I meditated on the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah about the suffering of the Messiah, and as I continued to sit with chapter 53, a single verse kept grabbing my attention:

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

The King James Version reads, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Following the Good Friday service, a few of us went down to Coddington to watch “The Passion of the Christ”. It’s a film I’ve seen countless times, almost every other Good Friday I would find myself watching the film again. And in the times before, as was the intention, each time our Savior was portrayed as being struck, I would cringe and begin to feel the weight of all of his sufferings and beatings. But this year, the last part of Isaiah 53:5 kept surfacing in my head, “by His stripes we are healed.” 

And so as I sat there in the dark room watching the movie with a few weeping friends, I made myself watch through the scenes that I used to cringe at. Every beating, every strike, BOOM, we are healed. That is insane. His EVERY SCAR heals ours; by His every stripe, we are healed. And so I sat there in completely awe of the beauty of those fleshy scars, every single one of them covers my sins and brokenness, and it is through every single one of those fleshy scars that I am made whole.

And with that, I entered Easter Sunday with full confidence and faith in Christ, knowing that His blood redeems every square inch of who I am.