April 4: He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
♫ Music:
Day 31 - Friday, April 4
Title: He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
Scripture #1: Isaiah 53:3–10 (NKJV)
He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death,
because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin…
Scripture #2: Galatians 3:13–14 (NKJV)
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Poetry & Poet:
“Guilt”
by Lisa Gorton
With this hand I shut out the sun
and with my left, for little money,
sold the treasure of my heart.
Now I walk its poverty
down wheedling ways and dark,
and all my words of truth are gilt
and all they touch they tarnish.
My truth is burned and beaten out
to small designs of loneliness.
Where is my help
when the sun that warmed
the gardens of my innocence
is now an eye that burns me
with the shame of my offence?
HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS
In my Gospel, Kingdom, and Culture class, we memorize the Two Ways to Live outline of the gospel. In 2 of its 6 panels it draws on Isaiah 53:6. When authors Philip Jensen and Tony Payne focus, in panel 2, on our rejection of God as our ruler and our rebellion against his way, they call on Isa. 53:6a. "We have all, like sheep gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…” Reading Lisa Gorton’s poem, “Guilt,” in conjunction with today’s other offerings allows me to see the speaker’s heart treasure sold cheaply while deliberately blocking out the sun, as if hiding the transaction in shadow. The same sun that once shone on innocence now cannot but expose the shame of the offence the speaker regrets. Whatever truth the impoverished heart can muster wheedles its way in the dark. That tarnished truth merely musters the allure of gilt rather than the glistening gold of the sun. Understandably, the speaker asks, ‘Where is my help?’
Scripture gives us an answer. God sends his Son, the anointed one, as the suffering servant. In the words of theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jesus is our vicarious representative. He is our substitute, propitiating the holy wrath of God and satisfying his righteous judgment. He is the atoning offering for sin. This is the truth that can, the person who can overcome the guilt. This is what the speaker of the poem hopes for.
So, in the face of the failure and shame of human sin, it is a glorious feature of this passage from Isaiah, and verse 6 in particular, that Jensen and Payne can turn back to and fill out for their panel 4: “but He has laid on him the iniquities of us all.” Because of his love, God sent his Son into the world, the man Jesus Christ. Jesus always lived under God’s rule. But Jesus took our punishment by dying in our place.”
Artist Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece captures the physical burden of this substitutionary logic. We see in Jesus’s figure on the cross our sorrows that afflicted him with grief. The Altarpiece was painted for St. Anthony’s Monastery, in the historically contested territory of Alsace, to the east of France and the west of Germany. The monks had a special ministry to care for the diseased and plagued. Jesus’s crucified body, emaciated, visibly scarred and pocked, conveys his representation of those who would look upon the altar. That particularity however is meant to speak inclusively and not exclusively. It serves to demonstrate a representative truth deeper than the skin level bearing of their disease. Isaiah sees ahead to the Apostle’s words that this anointed one, Christ, would become a curse for us in order to redeem us. He would bear the human disease of lawlessness and condemnation. So that we might ‘receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.’
Peace is what our representative, Jesus, achieves by taking our punishment and curse. Peace is what we need for we are alienated from God in our rebellion. And so, we look steadfastly, and with grim irony and cheerful contrition, on the one whom, in our sin, we despised, and from whom we hid our faces. The New Young Messiah that we listen to today re-tells an updated setting Handel’s masterpiece. It reminds us that a Hallelujah is coming, but for now we contemplate the sufferings of our savior in our stead. Whether we contemplate this truth in our own suffering, our own caught-upness in disease, violence, and abuse, or whether we do so in comfort amid wealth, we are called to recognition of our complicity in the sin that Jesus bears on the cross, so that each of us can cry out with the poem, ‘Where is my help?’ What a mercy that we know the Psalmist’s answer: “My help comes from the Lord” (Psalm 121:2)
Prayer:
Lord, help us to look to you in your suffering.
Help us to see your costly love.
Help us to recognize our sin,
And lead us by your Holy Spirit in repentance into life and peace,
Amen
Dr. Andy Draycott
Professor of Theology,
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Isenheim Altarpiece (overall and detail views)
Three close-ups of the crucifixion wounds of Christ
Matthias Grünewald
1512–1516
Overall dimensions of the Isenheim Altarpiece: H. 376 cm x L. 534 cm
Musée Unterlinden, Colmar
Alsace, France
The Isenheim Altarpiece is an altarpiece painted by Matthias Grünewald. It is Grünewald's largest work and is regarded as his masterpiece. The altarpiece was originally painted for the Monastery of St. Anthony in Issenheim. The monks there specialized in hospital work and were noted for their care of plague sufferers, as well as for their treatment of skin diseases. The image of the crucified Christ, pitted with plague-type sores, must have comforted the patients by showing them that Jesus fully understood and shared their afflictions and pain. According to the accounts of His crucifixion in the Christian gospels, in the course of His passion Christ sustained five wounds, which became the focus of devotional practices during the late Middle Ages, and were often reflected in church music and art. The five wounds are (1) the nail hole in his right hand, (2) the nail hole in his left hand, (3) the nail hole in his right foot, (4) the nail hole in his left foot, and (5) the wound to his torso from the piercing of the spear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isenheim_Altarpiece
https://daydreamtourist.com/2012/11/15/the-isenheim-altarpiece-art-for-the-ill/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Holy_Wounds#:~:text=The%20wounds,-Christ%20after%20his&text=The%20five%20wounds%20comprised%201,the%20piercing%20of%20the%20spear
About the Artist:
Matthias Grünewald was a German Renaissance painter of religious works, who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval central European art into the sixteenth century. Only ten of his paintings—several consisting of many panels—and thirty-five of his drawings survive, all religious, although many others were lost at sea in the Baltic on their way to Sweden as war booty. His reputation was obscured until the late nineteenth century, and many of his paintings were attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis. In addition to being a painter, Grünewald was also a hydraulic engineer and is first mentioned in this regard in 1510, when he was called to Bingen to repair a fountain.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1362.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Gr%C3%BCnewald
About the Music: “Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs and Carried Our Sorrows” from the album The New Young Messiah
Lyrics:
Surely, surely, He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrow;
Surely, surely, He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrow;
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
Surely, surely, He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows;
About the Original Composer:
“Surely He Hath Borne our Griefs” was composed in 1741 by George Frederic Handel. It is a part of Handel’s famous Messiah, first performed in Dublin in 1742 and premiering in London nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Handel originally established himself through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s, in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and very little direct speech. Instead, the text is an extended reflection on Jesus Christ as Messiah. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only "scene" taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the passion and ends with the "Hallelujah" chorus. In Part III, he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven. “Surely He Hath Borne our Griefs” is a chorus piece sung in Part II of the Messiah.
About the Performers: Mark English, Larnelle Harris, and Steve Green
Michael English (b. 1962) is an American Christian singer and record producer. Initially he was a member of his family's singing group, but later he became a member of the Gaither Vocal Band. During his solo career, he recorded eight studio albums. English's highest-charting solo single was "Your Love Amazes Me.” In 2013, English announced he would be leaving the Gaither Vocal Band to devote more time to his solo career. His final appearance with the group was performing "Alpha and Omega" at the 2013 Dove Awards. Since his Gaither Vocal Band departure, Michael has appeared on numerous Gaither Vocal Band Reunion videos and has released three studio albums, a live album, and a greatest hits recording, The Best of Michael English.
https://michaelenglishmusic.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_English_(American_singer)
Larnelle Steward Harris (b. 1947) is an American gospel singer and songwriter. During his forty-plus years of ministry, Harris has recorded eighteen albums, won five Grammy Awards and eleven Dove Awards, and has had several number-one songs on the inspirational music charts. Perhaps Harris' best-known songs are his duets with Sandi Patty, including "More than Wonderful" (1983) and "I've Just Seen Jesus" (1985). His 1995 album, Unbelievable Love, received the 1996 Dove Award as Inspirational Album of The Year. Harris has appeared live on television series, several Billy Graham crusades, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He has appeared on numerous Gaither Homecoming shows, and his own Christmas special. In his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, Harris has made many appearances on the WHAS Crusade for Children, a long-running local telethon benefitting children's charities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnelle_Harris
https://www.larnelle.com/
Steve Green (b. 1956) is an American singer-songwriter. He spent much of his early life in Argentina with his missionary parents. He graduated from Grand Canyon University. His intended major was pre-law, but a professor recognized his musical talent and encouraged him to develop it. In 1980, Green joined Gary McSpadden, Lee Young, and Bill Gaither to form the Gaither Vocal Band. In 1982, he signed a solo contract with Sparrow Records, and released his self-titled debut album in 1984. In the same year, he established Steve Green Ministries. Green's breakout year came in 1985 with the release of “He Holds the Keys,” which earned him the Dove Award. Throughout his years of ministry, Steve has been honored with four Grammy nominations, eighteen number-one songs, seven Dove Awards, and has been inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. With over forty recordings to his credit, including children’s projects and Spanish-language albums, Green has sold over three million albums worldwide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Green_(singer)
https://stevegreenministries.org/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Lisa Gorton (b. 1972) is an Australian poet, novelist, literary editor, and essayist. She is the author of four award-winning poetry collections: Press Release, Hotel Hyperion, Empirical, and Mirabilia. Her second novel, The Life of Houses, received the NSW Premier's People's Choice Award for Fiction and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction (shared).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Gorton
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lisa-gorton
About the Devotion Writer:
Andy Draycott
Professor of Theology
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Trained in Christian Ethics and Political Theology, Andy Draycott has become a leading authority on the reception history of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678/1684). He is co-editor of The Pilgrim’s Progress for the Norton Library series (forthcoming, 2025) and author of Into the Pilgrimverse (forthcoming, 2025). His articles and chapters have dealt with graphic novels, book covers, illustrations, and Bible studies drawing upon this spiritual classic. Besides an integration seminar on his specialism, he also teaches Systematic Theology and Gospel, Kingdom, and Culture.