Introduction to Lent
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. 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. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:5-7 (ESV)
Stanza two of our hymn calls us to meditate on the cross: “Make me see Thy great distress, anguish, and affliction, bonds and stripes and wretchedness and Thy crucifixion; Make me see how scourge and rod, spear and nails, did wound Thee, How for man Thou diedst, O God, Who with thorns had crowned Thee.” How graphic it is to read this stanza and see how God-made-man—Jesus Christ, the Son of God—took upon Himself not only the physical pain of crucifixion, which was some of the worst pain that one could ever experience, but also the agony of hell on the cross. This Lamb, Jesus, was brutally killed.
And why? What’s the point of this gory death? “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities…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.” Here is the cause of Jesus’ great distress: You and your sins. We all deserve to be punished just as brutally, but we are not. Why? Because Jesus took on our punishment for us on the cross. We then are spared the horrendous punishment we deserved because of the loving sacrifice of Christ, for “the chastisement for our peace was upon Him.” He made peace between us and God, “and by His stripes we are healed.”
Yet, O Lord not thus alone make me see Thy Passion,
But its cause to me make known and its termination.
Ah! I also and my sin wrought Thy deep affliction;
This indeed the cause hath been of Thy crucifixion.
The Lutheran Hymnal 140:3