Isaiah 53:4, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
Jesus truly bore the griefs and the sorrows of His people’s “Today,” 2,000 years ago on Calvary. It was an actual, historic event….the griefs of all my life—and all yours if you are trusting in Him—were laid on, known by, and endured in Him on the cross.
And yet, since the PERSON who bore those griefs was—is—the God the Son, there is a real sense in which He is actively present with us, actively bearing our burdens with us even right this moment.
Yes, He bore our griefs and sorrows “once for all time” on the cross…..but there is also a sense in which that wound, received in the freedom of sovereign love on Calvary, remains fresh in the eternal heart of God, and is opened to us during season’s of our own woundedness, that we might enter in to the sufferings of Christ—which are our own sufferings borne for us—and see our grief turned to a matrix for God’s fellowship with us in Christ by His Spirit.
So, in this picture, you can imagine the right side of the image being “BC” saints, and the left side being “AD” saints….in the middle, truly anchored in history, is the suffering of Christ. And yet, since the one who suffered in the flesh is God the Son (who is atemporal), He gathers into His Lamentation ALL the laments of His people (and so causes their laments to be acceptable to the Father by making them His own lament) and is—for the same reason—truly and empathetically present as a comforter in those sufferings with His people.
