Isaiah 53:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He was pierced for our transgressions and suffered for our iniquities. The prophet asserted several times that He had no form or beauty, not to suggest any deformity but to emphasize the nature of His afflictions. He bore our sins through His wounds and endured torment for our iniquities, which encompasses persecution, oppression, and deceit. There is great wisdom in enduring illness, as well as great strength. The prophet describes sickness as frailty, sin, and wickedness. He refers to afflictions as plagues for our wrongdoings—specifically addressing the biases of His disciples, one labelling Him a demoniac, another a deceiver, and the rest as adversaries of God. Yet, He exhibited remarkable patience in bearing such mental frailty.

He declared, we considered Him to be afflicted, stricken, and sorrowful (Isaiah 53:4); in essence, we believed that His suffering was the result of God's will, as if it was due to specific offenses, leading Him to endure affliction, disease, and grief. However, this perspective is incorrect; rather, He bore our transgressions and was sacrificed for our sins. Furthermore, it is articulated that He, who was devoid of sin, suffered for our redemption and eternal life. In the past, we were adversaries of God, opposing His sacred commandments, disregarding the call to obedience, and refusing to serve Him.

The prophet did not state that He healed our weaknesses, so as to suggest that the Word, operating from outside the human experience and merely curing it, could leave humanity imprisoned by death. Rather, He carries our weaknesses and our transgressions, demonstrating that He assumed human form for our benefit, and the body that carries these frailties belongs to Him. Just as the Word Himself remained unscathed, as Peter noted when he mentioned that He bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet 2:24), we are liberated from our desires and filled with the truth of the Word.

He states that we perceived Him as a man acquainted with grief, or in the translation of the Seventy, as someone afflicted (Isaiah 53:3), and thought Him struck by God, suffering for His own transgressions. However, He was pierced for our transgressions—He who declares in the Psalm, ‘My hands and my feet are like wax’ (Psalm 22:17)—so that His wounds might bring us healing; He was bruised and cast away for our wrongdoings, in order to serve as a covenant for us, delivering us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13): for it is written, cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23, Galatians 3:13). Thus, the punishment that brings us peace rested on Him.

We assumed you were ill, but your suffering was not for your own sake; it was for us. You endured our transgressions. This affliction was not bestowed upon you by the Father; rather, you embraced it for our sake, bearing the consequences of our wrongdoing so that we might find healing through your wounds.

Due to our transgressions, we placed ourselves under judgment; however, He, being sinless, willingly faced that punishment for our benefit. The correction that He bore has granted us tranquility. Our sins made us adversaries of God, necessitating correction to restore peace. Yet, by bearing that punishment, He rendered us deserving of serenity. "By His stripes we are healed." Here is a novel and surprising approach to restoration: the physician submitted to surgery, resulting in the healing of the afflicted.

The proclamation indicates that He experienced suffering, as David expressed, 'And I have suffered' (Psalm 37:7). However, David did not personally suffer; it was Christ who endured pain when the decree for His crucifixion was enacted. Furthermore, His words through Isaiah affirm, 'I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting' (Isaiah 50:6). Similarly, the prophet Jeremiah echoes this sentiment, stating, 'He gives his cheek to the one who strikes him; he is filled with reproach' (Lamentations 3:30). All of these trials were borne by Christ.

Choosing to endure suffering is not a choice one imposes upon oneself. The prophet, recognizing the depth of Christ's afflictions, declares: "But he took our infirmities upon himself, and bore our diseases" (Is 53:4). Mortals do not necessarily suffer simply because they die; rather, condemned natures face various forms of anguish. Although He, in His divine essence, could not endure suffering, He bore His own anguish willingly. To save us through His suffering, He accepted all that was burdensome and capable of bringing Him pain.

Christ our Lord entered this world for our benefit and suffered on our behalf. The weight of our transgressions was the cause of His anguish; He bore our sins and endured the consequences that came from them. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." How marvelous are the goodness, mercy, and providence of God on our behalf! We have sinned, and yet Christ our Lord was condemned in our stead. The servants fell into sin, while the Master faced the punishment. Praise be to His humanity! We have been exalted, but the Lord of glory chose to be deeply humbled for our sake.

This individual endured suffering for our transgressions. Understand, therefore, that if sin is such a profound wickedness that the death of the Son of God, the eternal One, is required to erase it, how will it be removed from you if it remains unatoned by the sacrifice of the Son? The only means of its removal will be through everlasting anguish, which paradoxically means it will be both purged and yet never fully erased, for while finite suffering can afflict us, it can never reach infinity. When you come across the words, “That man was wounded for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities,” find encouragement in the promise of redemption and approach our compassionate Lord with confidence.

We are healed by Christ's wounds; so the prophet foretold, and we know that his prophecy is true. Through Christ's sufferings we are saved from eternal suffering; through His most precious Blood we are cleansed from the leprosy of sin and made alive.

The sole One bore our afflictions, the only One assumed the penalties on our behalf, not merely incapacitated, but fully laid within tombs and graves, repugnant and decaying.

To act as an atoning sacrifice to God for humanity's transgressions and to free us from the destructive outcomes of sin, Christ the Redeemer willingly accepted two key roles, bearing a dual burden. As a result of their initial wrongdoing in the garden and continuous failures, humanity justly faced God's anger, enduring curses and a myriad of afflictions that inevitably arise from sin. In His divine mission to rescue humanity from these trials and tribulations, the God-man Christ chose to shoulder the totality of God's wrath, becoming a curse on our behalf (Gal. 3:13), and to suffer the consequences we deserved for our transgressions.

In these statements, the previous verse's explanation regarding the purpose and significance of the Lord's sufferings is emphasized with greater strength and clarity. The prophet predominantly alludes to the afflictions and agonies endured by Christ on the cross, which serve as a source of spiritual healing for humanity. The chastisement of our peace is upon Him. Here, chastisement (παιδια) typically signifies correction, whether through verbal admonishments or through physical suffering and punishments. The surrounding context suggests that it refers to punishment in the sense of physical torment—bodily suffering. Our transgressions have provoked God's wrath against us.