Journey to the Cross & Beyond: Healings Begin Here

Sermon Quick Summary
Jesus did not stay in the grave. Jesus got up, and because Jesus lives, we have victorious hope because we know Jesus conquered death, and all power of the Kingdom of God is in His hands. However, let’s consider Jesus’ death and resurrection through another lens of truth we don’t always name by reviewing a few verses in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53:3-6 says, 3“He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Jesus the sins of us all” (Isaiah 53:3-6). Jesus carries what cripples all of us, the human condition of sin. The human condition of sin is not only about wrongs committed by us and to us; it’s also about physical pain, emotional grief, anxiety, shame, loneliness, and trauma. Jesus carried the human malady of sin and entered into our sin because of His love for us. Jesus chose to identify with us fully, bear our burdens, and provide a path for God’s healing and restoration. Jesus was wounded so we could be whole through transformation from God with a healed heart. Jesus was beaten so we could be restored with wholeness, completeness, and inner restoration for total peace (the meaning of the Hebrew word “shalom”). Jesus’ resurrection is proof that brokenness doesn’t have the last word. Now you are invited, in a prayerful moment between you and God, take your next step toward healing, open your heart to wholeness, and trust that because Jesus lives, you are being healed.
 
Jesus did not stay in the grave. Jesus got up, and because Jesus lives, we have victorious hope because we know Jesus conquered death, and all power of the Kingdom of God is in His hands.
            Good Morning, Family, Happy Resurrection Sunday! Jesus Got Up! What a powerful reminder that Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. Jesus got up, and because Jesus lives, we have victorious hope because we know Jesus conquered death, and all power is in His hands. Let’s continue in worship as we prepare to hear what God wants to share through God’s message this morning.  
            Many of us have walked through Holy Week many times over the years. We’ve waved palms on Palm Sundays, journeyed to the cross on Good Fridays, waited through the silence of Holy Saturdays, and here we are at another Resurrection morning.
            When was the last time you pondered the following questions: Why did Jesus die? Why the suffering? Why the cross? Why would God ordain or allow it? To make it more personal: When was the last time you pondered: What does Jesus’ death/resurrection have to do with me right now in 2025?
            For some, an immediate answer may come to mind. You may say: Jesus died for my sins so I could be forgiven. Or you may say: He’s the sacrificial Lamb who took away the sins of the world. Or you may say: His death and resurrection released God’s Spirit and power in the world and enabled us to have a personal relationship with God. All of these would indeed be true.

However, let’s consider Jesus’ death and resurrection through another lens of truth we don’t always name by reviewing a few verses in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53:3-6 says,
3“He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”
 
Jesus carried what cripples us, the human condition of sin. 
            Pastor Tammy Long shared, “Friends, many of you know this about me already, but I was born with a condition. It’s not something you would see just by looking at me. There were no casts or surgeries. But it’s a condition that has impacted every aspect of my life. It has influenced my thoughts and how I relate to people. It has influenced my decisions, especially the ones I regret. It has clouded my confidence, fed my fears, and at times, has left me feeling disconnected from God and from myself. What is my condition? The biblical name for it is sin.” 
            The truth is that you were born with this condition also. Sin is not just the bad things you do; sin is deeper than that. Sin is a spiritual sickness. Sin is a soul-level disorder that can distort every aspect of our lives. It’s a human condition born out of the free-will God has given you to choose whether you will align with God or not. Our natural bent is not to align with God. We prefer to do our own thing and go our own way. We may not say it, or even admit it, but sometimes, we believe we know better than God.
            Isaiah nailed it in the scripture we read when Isaiah said, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6).
            Sin is a “spiritual disease and dis-ease.”  “Dis” means we were never meant to be separated from God’s will and ways. God’s will and ways are always for our best, even when we can’t see it. Our souls were designed to be united with and long for God’s Spirit. In fact, all of creation was meant to be aligned with God’s will and ways. Since the human condition of sin is in the world and in us (ease of sinning), the symptoms and consequence of this malady are our experiences with sorrow, grief and pain. We cannot escape the ravages of sin in us and around us.
            But Jesus came to address this condition. John 3:16 tells us God so loved the world that he sent his Son. This essentially saves us from ourselves. Paul notes in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, that Jesus who “had no sin, took on sin for us.” Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again to address this human condition.

The human condition of sin is not only about wrongs committed by us and to us; it’s also about physical pain, emotional grief, anxiety, shame, loneliness, and trauma.
            In reviewing Isaiah 53:4 we read, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.” The original Hebrew words here are rich with meaning.
            Jesus carried the weaknesses of the world. The word weaknesses in Hebrew can refer to sickness, disease, or affliction. The meaning encompasses all the frailties, failures, and infirmities of our human nature including moral weaknesses, emotional struggles, and all the heavy burdens sin imposes on our lives.
            Similarly, the word sorrows in Hebrew can refer to both emotional grief and physical pain. Isaiah chose words that reflect the real toll of sin in the world suffering that is mental, emotional, and physical, as well as spiritual.
            Jesus didn’t just carry our guilt to the cross. Jesus carried our grief, our anxiety, our shame, our loneliness, and our trauma. Jesus took upon Himself the consequences of sin that represents not only our wrongdoing, but all the wounds we’ve suffered as well as the wounds we’ve caused.

Jesus carried the human malady of sin and entered into our sin because of His love for us. Jesus chose to identify with us fully, bear our burdens, and provide a path for God’s healing and restoration.
            Every one of us has felt the realities of sin. It’s the human story of our own malady. We are like sheep who are wandering, wounded, and vulnerable. We’ve strayed from what gives life. We’ve chased our own way. We’ve chosen control over trust. We’ve also been abused and oppressed.
            We live in a world infected by sin like a cancer. We have been victimized by it. We see sin’s effects in broken systems and broken hearts. Natural creation is out of balance. Jesus stepped into our sin sickness and broken world and picked up the burden of our rebellion. Jesus bore the weight of our condition, not just as an act of sympathy, but as a divine substitute for us in our place. All of this Jesus carries and came to save us from.
            Jesus was not just acquainted with grief; Jesus absorbed it. Jesus knew our sickness. Jesus felt the fullness of our sorrow. Jesus didn’t turn away from it; Jesus carried it and entered into it. Jesus Christ carried these not merely in a figurative sense, but Jesus actually entered into the human condition as the Son of God. Jesus shared in human sufferings not because of any sin or weakness in Him, but because Jesus chose to identify with us fully, to bear our burdens, and to provide a path for healing and restoration.
            Why would Jesus or anyone do this? It is because of one four letter word: Love.
Paul states it this way in Romans 5:18: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” This is amazing grace, amazing love, but can we trust it? We see the evidence of this broken sinful world all around us. Sometimes it feels like God does not love at all. How can we be sure God loves us?

Jesus was wounded so we could be made whole through our transformation from God to give us a healed heart. 
            This biblical scripture passage, Isaiah 53, was written more than 700 years before Jesus was born. Yet when you read it, it’s as if Isaiah is standing at the foot of the cross watching it unfold in real time, including the piercing, the sorrow, and the substitution, with Jesus in our stead for us.
            Why is this point important? Why does it matter? It reminds us that Jesus’ death and resurrection was always the plan. God didn’t scramble to come up with a solution. Jesus’ death was a fulfillment of prophecy Isaiah couldn’t have known on his own and a fulfilment of God’s promise. This reaffirms that God keeps God’s Word. God is faithful. God can be trusted. Healing and restoration have always been in God’s heart.
            Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” This is core to God’s story. Jesus understands our suffering then and now.  From the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus also took our place for a grand purpose. There is no getting around the rawness of that language: pierced, crushed, beaten, whipped. Isaiah’s words go beyond legal forgiveness or a pardon for our sins. The weight we could not carry, Jesus willingly took upon Himself, not as a victim, not because He had no choice. Instead, Jesus loved us too much to leave us in our human condition.
            This isn’t just courtroom imagery. This is deeper still; this is healing language. Reviewing Isaiah 53:5 includes, “He was whipped so we could be healed.” The word “healed” here encompasses being restored, mended, and made whole again. Jesus’ death and resurrection is about being healed, not just about being forgiven. Sin needing to be healed is a truth we often don’t talk about.
            This is what we’ve learned about trauma. Trauma just doesn’t go away with an apology or saying you are sorry. There needs to be healing when we’ve been living in shame locked in cycles of fear or self-hatred, or carrying bitterness, insecurity, addiction, or pride. These are all manifestations of the human condition of sin.
            We need a new healed heart, not just a clean slate. The healed heart is what Jesus came to give. On the cross, Jesus didn’t just die for sin in general. Jesus died for us, personally, taking what breaks us and healing us where we are broken.

Jesus was beaten so we could be restored with wholeness, completeness, and inner restoration for total peace (the meaning of the Hebrew word "shalom").
            Isaiah tells us Jesus was “beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed” This phrase is significant because being beaten includes more than physical suffering. Jesus endured violence, rejection, and injustice. Jesus endured these realities from our sins, so that we could be restored and be whole.
            That word “whole” in Hebrew is “shalom.” Shalom is often translated as peace. However, shalom is more than just being calm or “chilling out.” Shalom means wholeness, completeness, inner restoration for total peace. Jesus was beaten so we could be whole. Jesus was whipped so we could be healed.

Jesus’ resurrection is proof that brokenness doesn’t have the last word.
              Here is the good news: After being beaten and whipped in this world, Jesus got up. Jesus didn’t just take our place. Jesus conquered the human condition that can hold us.
              Because Jesus rose, we’re not just forgiven; we’re empowered. We have access to the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. That Holy Spirit inside of us empowers us to begin living from a new place of wholeness, even while the healing continues.
              Healing continues because healing isn’t a one-time event; healing is a journey of transformation. We may still carry wounds. We may still wrestle with the human condition of sin. However, we don’t have to be enslaved to it. We are no longer defined by what’s been broken. We can be healed. We are being restored.

Now you are invited, in a prayerful moment between you and God, take your next step toward healing, open your heart to wholeness, or trust that because Jesus lives, you are being healed.
              Perhaps, you’ve never said yes to Jesus. Or perhaps, you have walked away and want to come back. Or perhaps, you know it is time to say yes to God for more healing, deeper peace, or the next step on your journey. 
              Because Jesus is alive, the same love that led Jesus to the cross is the love that raised Jesus from the grave. That love is reaching for you now. Jesus was beaten so you could begin to be made whole. Jesus was raised so you could heal. The journey of healing doesn’t end at the cross; the journey of healing begins at the cross. So whatever your “yes” looks like, say it now to the divine God, the Messiah Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Ones who still heals, still restores, and still calls you by name.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDING FAMILY GROUPS
-What are your thoughts to the following questions: Why did Jesus die? Why the suffering? Why the cross? Why would God ordain or allow it?
-What does Jesus’ death/resurrection have to do with you right now in 2025 in practical application to your earthly life journey and why? How are you empowered to begin living from the new lifestyle of wholeness, even while the healing continues?
-What are the key elements in a lifestyle that increases your trust in God, even in the midst of difficult circumstances? What are your feelings on trusting in God when God’s Will and Way do not conform to your own desires or will for yourself?
-What are your feelings now about your condition of sin since your birth? In what ways might you feel now that you grow so much that you no longer possess the human malady of sin? How does your sin condition now impact your thoughts about yourself, how you relate to other people, and how you relate to God?
--In what ways does Jesus having been whipped on the cross lead to healing? What does healing from God look like? How and when does it include physical healing and the internal healing of the soul that God does?