Isaiah 53:4-9 (NRSV)
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Verse 4Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. Verse 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. Verse 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Verse 7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Verse 8By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. Verse 9They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Devotion
“But officer, I didn’t do it…” Christ’s actions are beyond mortal comprehension. It’s almost a reflex for us to blame the other guy, to look for an escape hatch, to make ourselves invisible. Such scape-goating is at the heart of human sin. Maybe that’s why Isaiah instead speaks of a lamb.
Prayer
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us. Amen.