Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 3 | GOD THE SON: JESUS, THE MESSIAH AND LORD OF ALL – HE DIED / 221

him. He was despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, unesteemed and unloved. Though ironically perceived as one who was stricken by the Lord, he was actually bearing our griefs, wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastised for our peace, and beaten viciously for our healing. We like sheep have wandered and gone astray in directions that have nothing to do with the Lord, we’ve turned each one to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all . This truth, that his humiliation was the result of our rebellion and sin, ought to produce in each of us a deep sense of sobriety and angst. Hymnody has captured these inclinations in surveying the wondrous cross, in seeing the sacred head wounded on account of our own foolishness and transgression. The Lord’s love to reconcile, redeem, and restore led him to punish his own Servant in our place, laying on him the iniquity of us all . No other truth, no other idea, can bring in us such a deep level of self awareness of the real consequences our sin wrought upon our Lord. His blows, beatings, rejection, and despising was caused directly by our own disobedience, lies, lust, and greed. Our waste and hatreds, our irritations and jealousies and our foolishness and profanities are the reasons for our Lord’s horrible treatment and death. When we come to understand just how responsible we are for his suffering, only then will we be able to truly empathize with our Lord, and bear daily the cross that we are to share with him. We must admit our part in Calvary, that contribution that made his death necessary for our redemption . Yes, we have gone our own way; yes, we have gone astray like wandering sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. After reciting and/or singing the Nicene Creed (located in the Appendix), pray the following prayer: Holy and everliving God who revealed the glory of your Son when he was exalted on the cross: Accept our praise and thanksgiving for the power of his victory and grant us never to be afraid to suffer or to die with him; our crucified King who is alive, and reigns in all eternity with you and the Holy Spirit one God for ever and ever.

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T heology and E th i c s

Nicene Creed and Prayer

~ The Church of the Province of South Africa. Minister’s Book for Use With the Holy Eucharist and Morning and Evening Prayer. Braamfontein: Publishing Department of the Church of the Province of South Africa. p. 47.