Through The Bible in a Year - April 6, 2026

“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.” – Isaiah 53:5

A Korean pastor stood before a room full of pastors and confessed:

“When I came to America, I raised my daughter with tenderness. She was my princess. But my son—I knew as the son of an immigrant, he’d have to be twice as good and twice as strong as his peers to succeed. So I pushed him with discipline and expectation and shame.

“At our church’s 20th anniversary celebration, my son flew across the country. The night before, we met at my kitchen table. He said, ‘You are hard-hearted and a cruel parent and you have no right to be a pastor.’

“We fought. I left the house. I went and lay down in a field and looked up at the stars and wept because I knew what my son was saying was true. I felt as though the sky and the stars had fallen down on me and they were crushing me because of my sin.”

This was the weight of just one man’s sin. What if the sin of the whole world fell on you? It would have been more crushing than words can express or that any ordinary person could endure.

Yet, such a crushing weight is what Isaiah says Jesus bore for us upon the cross: “He was crushed for our iniquities.” The weight that each of us carries—the errors, the failures, the betrayals, the sins we cannot forget—they weigh on us. They crush us!

But, by the grace of God that weight could be put on another? God crushed His own Son with the weight of our sin so that we would be free of its burden. What would it mean if you really believed that? Peace. The weight of your sin wouldn’t be yours anymore. Such faith would be healing to your heart and soul. This is precisely what God wants and promises to those who put their faith in what God sent Jesus to endure on the cross – the weight of my sin and yours. By His wounds we are healed.

Respond: What weight is crushing you right now? What guilt, what shame, what failure presses down so hard you can barely breathe? Today, believe this: that weight was put on Jesus. He was crushed so you could have relief from the burden and peace in your heart. He was wounded so you could be healed.

Prayer: Lord, I feel the weight. The crushing guilt of what I’ve done, who I’ve hurt, and how I’ve failed you. But Your Word says that Jesus was crushed for my iniquities. The chastisement that brings me peace was unleashed on Him. Help me trust that transfer weight was your plan and my peace. Help me believe the weight of sin is really off of me because Jesus took it on himself. Thank You, In Jesus’s Name. Amen.