Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Once again I can hear Handel, and his chorus based on this passage, with its ‘Surely…surely…’ like great hammer blows. Here is something to be clear about, to be certain of: Jesus died for us; Jesus died for me.

If we view this fourth ‘Servant Song’ in terms of concentric circles (see the post from two days ago), here we are in the central circle, and it brings us to the centre of the gospel: the substitutionary death of Christ. He was substituted for us in His death on the Cross. He died in our place taking our punishment. (Note the repetition of the words ”we”, ”our”, ”us” throughout this middle section).

They (we) were correct to ‘consider’ that Jesus was punished by God, but wrong to imagine that it was because of any wrong-doing on His part. His punishment was all for us. ‘…their view of him was a dangerous half-truth. The true half was that God was involved: God was the active agent in the suffering. The untrue half was that this man had done anything to deserve punishment from God.’ Derek Tidball: ‘The Message of the Cross’, p.106.

We are on Holy ground here. Indeed, it is the Holiest of Holies. We can only remove our shoes in wonder and worship and profound gratitude.

‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.’