Isaiah 53: 4-5
Surely our griefs (sickness) He Himself bore, and our sorrows (pains) He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging (stripes) we are healed.
Many of you will recognize this language because it is quoted in the New Testament. We will cover that quote later. This is from the amazing prophet, Isaiah. You saw from yesterday’s verse how in synch he was with Yahweh God. What really makes the prophet Isaiah and his book so astounding is the revelation he had of Jesus. He is the one who wrote, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7: 14). I tell you all of this so you will understand this prophet’s ministry and his revelation of the Christ. God showed him the Christ’s coming and ministry. He saw Jesus being born and later being pierced for us.
Let me say first, read this verse in many versions. There is so much here and so many nuances that I believe you could spend all week on this verse. Second, there is no way I can cover all of what this verse says in this mini-message. The sound bite we must leave with, the minimum comprehension is this, “By his stripes, we are healed.”
There are reasons for every part of Jesus arrest, sentencing and crucifixion. One piece of those events was the beatings he endured. I have thought of this so many times and am completely convinced that Jesus was beaten and bruised in every single part of his body. Even the soles of his feet were striped by the whips. Now here is what makes this challenging. Jesus intended that it be so because he already knew what Isaiah saw. He understood the prophecy and the healing that would ensue because of his beating. It may break your heart to think about it, but Jesus was bruised and beaten so that we could be healed.
If you’ve thought much about Jesus’ ministry you’ve come to recognize that he took all the bad things on himself so that we could have the good. Obviously, the biggest example of this was that he took our sins in trade for his righteousness. We got his righteousness; he got our sin. What a deal. The same is true here. Isaiah is trying to help us understand that our healing was in Jesus’ stripes. He bore our sickness in his body and carried our pains. The scourging he endured was the seed he sowed for our healing.
Now here is the bit I wanted to get to. I find this hard, but important and I have shared this with very few people. When I am hurt, sick or injured, I remember this verse and I remember Jesus’ stripes. I have come to understand that the reason he was bruised in every part of his body was so that every part of mine would be healed. So, if I hurt my ankle, I think about the stripes and whelps that were on his ankle and I know that his stripes have made me whole. When you are sick or hurt, you might do this too. Remember that Jesus was bruised in that part of his body so that you might be healed. Wear your healing like he bore those stripes.
One last note. We must understand when we were healed. In this passage, Isaiah was looking forward to coming events. He was before Jesus, looking towards the cross. Isaiah, seeing those events, said, “By His scourging (stripes) we are healed.” He said, we are healed, not that we will be. Isaiah places our healing at Jesus’ scourging. That is to say, you were healed 2000 years ago. That means, we aren’t trying to get God to heal us. That is said and done. We are trying to get ourselves in harmony with the Trinity, so that the healing and health which are already ours, is revealed in our lives.
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