HE IS THE LAMB OF GOD!

Pieta of Michelangelo

GOOD FRIDAY: IS 53:2-9

Like a sapling he grew up in front of us,

like a root in arid ground.

Without beauty, without majesty we saw him,

no looks to attract our eyes;

a thing despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering,

a man to make people screen their faces;

he was despised and we took no account of him.

And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,

ours the sorrows he carried.

But we, we thought of him as someone punished,

struck by God, and brought low.

Yet he was pierced through for our faults,

crushed for our sins.

On him lies a punishment that brings us peace,

and through his wounds we are healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,

each taking his own way,

and the Lord burdened him

with the sins of all of us.

Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly,

he never opened his mouth,

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house,

like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers

never opening its mouth. - Is 53:2-9

You can hear the song by Yangeni singers, Lubengele Parish, Chililabombwe, Zambia.

On the cross, Jesus prayed the Psalm 22.

From his deep suffering, Jesus cries out to God.

His cry is not a cry of despair and revolt,

but a cry of pain put before God

with the full confidence that his last word

will be a word of life and salvation.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me, 

from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest.

Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In you our ancestors trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

To you they cried, and were saved;

in you they trusted, and were not put to shame." 

(Ps 22:1-5)