“He was pierced for our transgressions…”

                 Why would he do it?  Why would he leave heaven above, in perfect fellowship with the Father, and come to earth and experience the suffering and pain that so many live with every day?  In one of the classic Messianic passages in all the Old Testament, Isaiah writes of Christ, “He was pierced for our transgressions.”  What exactly does this mean?

To begin with, cognitively we all know what it means to be pierced physically.  Few of us, however, know it by experience.  I have never been stabbed or pierced by anything other than a doctor’s needle.  I broke some ribs once, and I remember it feeling like a hot sword cutting into my side — very painful!  So on one level — the physical — Jesus was pierced, while alive, by the crown of thorns (John 19:2) and the nails (John 20:25), and by the sword (John 19:34) while dead.  Zechariah prophesied that Messiah would be pierced (12:10) which John confirms in his gospel (19:37).  Combined with the Roman whipping he received, the combined effect was indescribably painful.  Of this Isaiah earlier writes, “…his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…” (52:14).

The marks of Jesus’ wounds have stayed with him:  “Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I myself!  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:39).  He later said to Thomas, who doubted his resurrection, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27).  In Revelation John mentions this one final time:  “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.  So shall it be!  Amen.” (1:7).  His wounds serve as a visual reminder of the awful cost it took to pay for our sins.  They are the only man-made thing in heaven above, a testimony of our fall and his grace.

But on another—a deeper—level, Jesus was pierced beyond the mere physical.  The Hebrew word for pierced in Isaiah 53:5 has broader connotations.  It can also mean, “to bore (as in make a hole), defile, break, profane, pollute and stain.”  In other words, there was more than just a bodily punishment going on.  Throughout John’s gospel Jesus constantly spoke of God as “My Father.”  No good Jew would ever speak of God this way.  But on the cross he shouts, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1, and Matthew 27:46).  What happened to Father?  The loving and harmonious fellowship of Father and Son was pierced abruptly, rudely and shockingly.  The Father, now the Judge, placed “the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) on the Son’s shoulders.  Thus Jesus’ anguished cry:  “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.  My heart has turned to water; it has melted away within me…you lay me in the dust of death.” (Psalm 22:14-15).  Because of our sin, in God’s eyes he had become broken, profaned, polluted and defiled — not personally in his holy being, but in category.  Jesus became our substitute and as such was punished in our place.  True, Jesus could say, “they have pierced my hands and my feet.” (Psalm 22:16b), but much more had been pierced.  The whole episode pierced his heart and the previously never-before-broken fellowship of the Godhead.  If the effects of the physical injuries remain, don’t you think these deeper effects remain too?  Do children that go astray really understand the pain their parents feel?  No.  The interruption of divine fellowship we can never comprehend, and thus never fully appreciate.  As the refrain goes, “I’ll never know how much it cost, to see my sin upon that cross.”

Is there any proper way to say “thank you” to such a redeeming God and Savior?  No!  Do even our best works and efforts begin to come close to being an adequate expression of gratefulness?  Not in a million years!  The sinfulness of our transgressions has pierced not just the harmony of this world, but the joys of heaven itself.  And despite that, God took the initiative to right our wrongs.  The only requirement upon us:  trust him, for he has proven himself trustworthy.  Trust him for salvation; trust him with your life.  Trust him with your family, your future, your problems and failures, your classes and associates at work.  God simply wants to be trusted.  Do we…really?