Since Jesus was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, as the preceding verse speaks of Him, what gave Him those sorrows, that grief? The fourth verse tells: “Surely He hath born our griefs and carried (sustained) our sorrows.” The consequences of sin in the race of mankind,—sicknesses of varied character, as leprosy, dumbness, deafness, blindness, paralysis, demon possession, and death itself (the wages of sin)—to these He was not indifferent, we well know from reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. By a word, or the touch of His hand, He cleansed the leper, the palsied man rose from his cot, Lazarus dead and buried four days came forth from the tomb. But it was not enough that Jesus should take pity upon the sufferers among whom He labored and compassionately relieve them. He bore the griefs, carried, in His own tender heart, the sorrows of humanity, Himself sinless and untouched by sin in His holy nature and Person. This entering into the sufferings of His creatures while He was here upon earth, is blessedly illustrated in John 11:33-3833When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35Jesus wept. 36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. (John 11:33‑38).
Yet “we, we did regard Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”—such is the blindness of the natural man, such the state of even the enlightened Jew with the Word of God in his keeping.
A valley of tears this world has ever been since sin entered, and death by sin; and man’s endeavor, since Cain and his family set the example (Genesis 4:16-2216And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. 19And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. (Genesis 4:16‑22)) has been to ignore or to mask as far as possible this painful truth,—to make merry with music, to occupy the mind with productive labor, etc. In such a scene the heavenly Stranger walked alone.
Yet, though Jesus entered most deeply in the exercises of His heart into the suffering He saw on every hand, a far deeper need of man than relief from sickness and sorrow was before Him. It is this which the Holy Spirit next discloses (verse 5), as the light of the work of redemption enters the conscience and heart of the poor sinner.
“Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone.” (John 12 :24), and,
It is faith’s acceptance of God’s truth that we see in verse 5:
“But 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.” Here is the explanation of the cry from the center cross,
Without His bearing our sins, there would be nothing before man, from Adam downward, but the woes of a lost eternity in which the whole race would be involved. Faith takes God at His word, believes what He has said (John 3:14 17), rejoices in a new and eternal standing before God revealed in Romans 3:21 25: 2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) and many other Scriptures.
Verse 6 again blessedly contrasts "we" and "Him"—we have gone astray (ever so far, we humbly own), and turned, each of us, to his own way, and Jehovah (not because of anything in us, but in love which was in Himself) hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The "us all" is the people of faith—all who believe (Acts 18:39). And does the reader know this for himself?
Messages of God’s Love 3/11/1934