About two thousand years ago He was born in a stable near a city called Bethlehem. He grew to be a man, but there was one thing that distinguished Him from other men; He was blameless. He was also humble and meek. “He hath no form nor comeliness… no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2).

As a man, He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and made the lame to walk. He even raised the dead! He never cheated, never stole, never lied nor killed. “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth” (Isaiah 53:9). He never wronged a single soul. Yet, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). They lied about Him, twisted His words and sent Him to the authorities to be sentenced to death. They mocked Him, spit upon Him, and a crown of piercing thorns was placed upon His brow. They beat Him. With fists and clubs and whips of leather with flint and stone, they marked Him, tore Him and bruised Him. “His visage was so marred more than any other man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14).

“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment” (Isaiah 53:7-8). On a hill called Calvary He was stripped of His cloths, and with them, His dignity. His hands and feet were nailed to an old rugged cross that was stood up for all to see Him and spit upon Him. His blood was everywhere. It ran from His head down his face, from His hands down past His elbows. The blood from His torn and shredded back and torso rolled down that old, dry wood, coming together with the blood from His feet that had streamed between His toes. It flowed to the bottom and gathered at the foot of the cross to cover and to cleanse the burdens and the sins that anyone might choose to lay there. There it remains, never to dry, forever healing the sorrows of men.

Suddenly, it became dark. The penance for every man’s transgression was cast upon Him. His Father, in His wrath, turned His back against Him. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee… In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment” (Isaiah 54:7-8). Finally, for the first time during His ordeal, He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?… my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He looked to Heaven with intense compassion in His eyes and prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Then He lowered His head and died.

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). When a soldier who was standing there heard His cry, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Matthew 15:39).