“Pierced for our transgressions”

The Passion of the Christ in Isaiah 53

by Lee Gatiss

When we think about the cross, the passion, the death of Jesus Christ, it is always worth spending time thinking about this amazing passage in Isaiah 53. It’s a beautifully structured poem in the original, and consists of five stanzas or sections. And as is the case so often with Hebrew poetry, the first and last stanza have certain parallels, as do the 2nd and fourth.

It is neatly represented by a cross, with the top and bottom panels corresponding to each other and the left and right panels also having certain features in common. All of which draws our attention very firmly to the central verse, the central section of Isaiah’s prophecy, which is in the middle of the cross below. More