A Good Friday meditation

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53: 3-6)

As the economy stumbles and terrorists bray new threats, take heart, my friends. The world is broken and evil is most real, yet the endgame is in motion. We are actors in this grand drama, but the script has already been written. And the Author penned for Himself the most shocking, unsettling, and important role in the entire story.