Readings

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 15, QA 37-39

37 Q. What do you understand by the word "suffered"?
A. That during His whole life on earth, but especially at the end,
Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race. This He did in order that, by His suffering as the only atoning sacrifice,
He might set us free, body and soul, from eternal condemnation,
and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

38 Q. Why did He suffer "under Pontius Pilate" as judge?
A. So that He, though innocent, might be condemned by a civil judge,
and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.

39 Q. Is it significant that He was "crucified" instead of dying some other way?
A. Yes. This death convinces me that He shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was accursed by God.

Isaiah 53 (NIV84)
1Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5But he 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.
6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.