He Carried Our Sorrows

I sat in a restaurant with a friend I hadn't seen in years, catching her up on my life.  We were pre-autism diagnosis at that time and each day was a whirl of frustration, stress and uncertainty.  As Donna quietly listened she blinked back tears.  I have received no sweeter comfort in all my life than those tears, and the tears shed by other friends who have allowed me to pour out my heart in the midst of life's difficulties.

I think about the response of Jesus, who stood at the graveside of his friend Lazarus.  John 11:35 tells us simply, "Jesus wept." What comfort this must have brought Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. "God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering," said Saint Augustine.  

When we take Communion, we are given the bread and the cup.  The bread represents the body of Jesus, broken for us, and the cup stands for His blood, shed for us.  I have come to see that broken body as the way Christ identifies with us.  He took all our brokenness on Himself -- willingly suffered on our behalf -- that He might understand our own brokenness and walk with us through it.  And the blood which was shed on the cross is sufficient to wash us clean from our sins.  This is the gift of God for our salvation.  It is freely given to all who will receive it.

This is Holy Week.  As you prepare your heart for Easter, why not read Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the prophecy of Jesus' suffering and glory.  Read it slowly, prayerfully, maybe in an unfamiliar translation.  See Jesus, despised and rejected, whom we did not esteem, but who suffered for you, for me.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? (Isaac Watts, from When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)