(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)
Passion Week on the blog begins today!
For the next several days, we’re choosing to slow down, very intentionally. To walk, step by step, toward the cross. Not rushing to Easter morning, not skipping ahead to the empty tomb. But sitting in the weight, the tension, and the beauty of what Jesus willingly endured.
Each day, we’ll be posting a new reflection centered on a moment, theme, or passage leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. This isn’t meant to be something you skim and move on from. It’s an invitation to pause, to reflect, and to let the reality of the Gospel press deeper into your heart.
Because if we’re honest, many of us have heard this story so often that it’s become familiar… and familiarity can dull what should undo us.
So this week, we’re asking God to make it real again.
Today’s Focus: Isaiah 53
Before we even step into the events of Passion Week, we need to understand something foundational:
Jesus didn’t stumble into suffering.
He stepped into it, on purpose.
Long before the cross, Isaiah gives us a picture of the Messiah that doesn’t match what people expected. Not a conquering king. Not someone admired and celebrated.
A suffering servant.
Take your time reading this today. Don’t rush it. Allow your heart the time it needs to truly contemplate this passage…
Isaiah 53 (NIV)
“Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him,
nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.
Surely He took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered Him punished by God,
stricken by Him, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth;
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away.
Yet who of His generation protested?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people He was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in His death,
though He had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin,
He will see His offspring and prolong His days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
After He has suffered,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great,
and He will divide the spoils with the strong,
because He poured out His life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For He bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.”
He Did This For You
It’s easy to read something like this and keep it at a distance. To think in broad, general terms: “Jesus died for the world.”
That’s true.
But Isaiah 53 refuses to let it stay general.
He was pierced for your sin.
He was crushed for your iniquity.
He carried your pain.
He took on your punishment.
This wasn’t abstract. It was intentional. Personal.
Jesus didn’t just make salvation possible, He made it personal. For you and for me.
Sit With It
If we rush past this, we miss it. The cross was not symbolic suffering. It was real. Violent. Costly. Chosen.
And Isaiah shows us that this was always the plan. So today, don’t move past this too quickly.
Read it again. Notice what stands out. Pay attention to what feels uncomfortable.
Let it challenge the way you’ve casually held the Gospel.
Reflection
- What part of Isaiah 53 stands out to you the most and why?
- Where have you allowed the reality of Jesus’ suffering to become familiar instead of personal?
- What does it change if you truly believe He chose the cross, for you?
We’ll continue walking through this week together, one day at a time!
The Few 
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