The weight of the world on His shoulders

I work with kids from some pretty tough life circumstances. Sometimes because of their own choices, and sometimes because of someone else's.  It's pretty tough and sometimes feels incredibly unfair that they suffer because of someone else's sin.  (Ultimately, no one is without sin and all sin is wrong, but some sin affects others much more deeply.) 

I spent a lot of time last week processing, talking, and crying about this, and ended up overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted.  And then, this Sunday we read Isaiah 53 in church: 

2b
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 
He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
   smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

9 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
...
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

(ESV version found at biblegateway.com) Here is most of the chapter…but read the rest…it's all good.

And friends…I cried. And here's why: Everything we suffer through, all that breaks our hearts, and the injustices we see, He received, experienced and endured exponentially more than we do.  So when we go to him with a broken heart for the messed up world we live in, He totally understands…and I think He hurts too.  He loves us so much that He allowed His Son to suffer and die to rescue us from this life where we are affected by sin.  He will make all things right one day. And that, my friends, is the greatest hope I can even imagine. 

(picture from here)