The Great Exchange

Response from Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Jesus, you were marred beyond what we could think of as a man. You had grown up as a normal man. We did not flock to you for your looks. Yet it was You who we needed. You were the God of our creation and our salvation, there before us.

In Your normalcy, we ignored you. You were hated and rejected. You knew sorrow and pain. And we affirmed the rejection and disregarded your worthiness. We snubbed you as trash.

We thought it was God punishing You for Your sin. You were justly receiving for Your guilt and insignificance. Yet it couldn’t be more contrary. You were guiltless, good, true. You were the opposite of insignificant as the Almighty God.

Yet, in this act, You bore our pains, our sorrows. As we despised You, You were wounded for our rebellion, our comfortable sin, our evil transgressions. Punishment for you. Peace for us. Wounds for you and healing for us. We have all gone astray, defiantly gone our own way. And the LORD put it on You.

Yet Your example was perfect. You didn’t speak back in anger. You were silent. You were covered in judgment yet no one thought it was for their own sin. Shame for the Most Honorable. Death and violence for the One who is Life and Goodness.

Not as an accident. The Father willed it. He accomplished it. God’s will did well in Your obedient hand. And Your soul was an offering. It would achieve the end and make many to be made righteous. You would bear their iniquities and they your righteousness.

Therefore, You are given the reward. You share it with the strong. Recompensed because You chose to give your soul to death. You chose the scorn and shame and rejection we gave You in all our offense. And You bore our sin and made intercession for us, the transgressors.

It is the shocking irony. The scandalous rescue. It is the great exchange.