Easter #1:The Suffering Servant

            “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; by his wounds we are healed.”                        

These words from Isaiah 53 flash across the screen starting Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ. The movie was released in theatres on Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2004. The film portrays Jesus Christ’s last hours of life on earth before his crucifixion.

            The Passion of The Christ was hailed by critics as “a great epic film” and was called “powerfully moving.” It is most definitely moving. It affects you. It touches you. It shakes you. In fact, it’s a hard movie to watch; it’s a very dark film. If you’ve seen it, you know: the filmmakers do not hold back. It’s violent. It’s graphic. It’s horrific. It’s brutally honest in it’s depiction of the Passion of Jesus Christ. We see the crack of the whip, the tearing of flesh, the flowing of blood, and the nails driven into his hands. Jesus is beaten, battered, and broken. He’s crushed, crunched, and crashed. He’s whipped, welted, and wounded. He’s a cut, scarred, bloody mess. He is unrecognizable. The prophet Isaiah wrote: “…his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…”

Isaiah foretold that Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men;” that he would be a “man of sorrows, familiar with suffering.”

Jesus Christ knew suffering well. Christ, through his suffering, cleanses the nations, everyone, not just white heterosexual Christians from North America. The writer of Hebrews tells us that by Christ’s “one sacrifice he has made perfect those who are being made holy,” and that can be anyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…”

Jesus Christ “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

This doesn’t make sense. This doesn’t sound fair. This doesn’t add up.

Jesus took up our sins. Jesus was punished for our sins. His wounds heal us. His suffering brings us peace.

There’s a scene in The Passion of The Christ where Jesus and the two criminals are being given their crosses to carry to Golgotha. Christ drops to his knees, holds the cross close, and says: “I am your servant, father. Your servant, and the son of your handmaid.” One of the criminals scowls at Christ and asks: “Why do you embrace your cross, fool?”

“Why do you embrace your cross, fool?”

Why did Jesus Christ embrace the cross?

Why did Jesus Christ become the suffering servant?

Christ embraced the cross to change the world.

Christ embraced the cross to bring about peace, wholeness, and salvation; and not just in the forgiveness of sins sense, but in the peace and reconciliation among nations sense, in the reconciliation of relationships sense, in the restoration of souls and the world sense.

Christ embraced the cross for the world and every man, woman, and child on it.

Writer: Mark Braye and his wife Nancy are officers in Essex, Ontario, Canada. They have two children, pictured above, Hannah and Micah. The four of them love to play and watch Sesame Street.

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