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[expand title=”Devotion Text”]Isaiah 53:5-6
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds 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.
Jesus was given no advantages. The Father sent him to the back of the line and made him experience all the pain of humanity. He was not strikingly handsome or a head taller than the rest of the crowd—He had no form or majesty that we should look at him…. He was not a person readily accepted by virtue of personality—He was despised and rejected by men…. Although fully God, he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth—a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Jesus came from heaven to earth…and was sent to the back of the line—stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, oppressed, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, cut off out of the land of the living. The King of Kings lived life as the king of suffering. He was not a victim of circumstance. He was not in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was sent to the back of the line by the Father—it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.
Jesus was given no advantages in life and died a brutal death. That’s what it took to pay the penalty of sin. Nothing less would do. So, Jesus left heaven and went to the back of the line for you and me. I was the one who went astray. I was the one who turned to my own way. God laid my sin on Jesus. There is only one way to respond to such love—fall down and worship him! Every day! With your whole life!
Talking Points
- Thank Jesus for suffering and dying for you.
- Ask Jesus to help you live for him, every day, with your whole life.
Lord Jesus, thank you for willingly going to the back of the line for me. In your name I pray. Amen.
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