“The Iniquity of Us All”

Isaiah 53.6

Pastor Tom Johnson, April 6, 2012

 

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The Shepherd of the sheep has been struck down. And the sheep have been scattered. They have all gone separate paths—different paths but just as wayward. One sheep has betrayed him. Another has denied him. Some cry out “Crucify him!” Others shout, “He saved others, let him save himself.” Some see it as an opportunity to play a game for his clothing.

Our text does not say, “Some have gone astray like lost sheep.” It says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way.” There are as many stray paths as there are sheep going astray. We could analyze the paths people take and decide which ones are worse than others. We might even sound clever doing so. But a stray path is a stray path. “All have sinned,” Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Look at Jesus—a blameless man dying an inhumane death—while some think it is a time for joking, some for gambling, some for theological speculation, and some for the pure sport of it. Some are complicit. Some are silent. Some have authority. Some are powerless to challenge authority. In this scene of ugly, ruthless, and agonizing death, we now see clearly. I see my propensity to wander from the truth—my nature to err—my broken human condition—that’s why the Son of God is hanging and dying on the tree.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way.” We have not loved God with our whole hearts, minds, and strength. We have not loved others self-sacrificially. By our thoughts, our words, and our actions we have not lived the lives of selflessness, healing, and transformational power that Jesus lived. Instead, we have gone wandering down aimless paths—following our own noses and not the leading of the Good Shepherd. Like lost sheep, we are not sure where we came from or where we are going. We grow anxious as we grope in the darkness of our own making.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

That is where the iniquity more remarkably lies. Sure, there is the iniquity of what we do to one another and what we have done to God. But the iniquity of an innocent man taking upon himself all that guilt, shame, and fear is what is most astounding. He does not deserve his sentence. It is unfair that he would receive the scorn, pain, and death of the cross. It is unfair that Jesus takes upon himself our uncivil, unjust, and broken evil and its power upon himself in a grotesque spectacle of death. It is, as our reading says, “a perversion of justice.”

And so, that makes all of us participants in this great iniquity. We are all a part of the reason and cause for his dying there. But it is also the Lord’s plan to lay that iniquity upon him for us.

For he alone has strong enough shoulders to bear our sin. By his obedience, innocence, and righteousness we are healed. The death of Jesus is not the end of the story—it is the beginning of the death of death. It is the last, failed effort to crush the living One and the hope of Life himself. It is the last try to cover the Light with darkness. Death, sin, and evil will not triumph. They cannot. They will not. Though it looks dark and bleak for the moment, it is only because it is Friday—Good Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. We are just hours away from early Sunday morning. For now, we reflect on the darkness.

And here we are grateful to the Good Shepherd who lies down his life for his wandering sheep.