Interpreting the Suffering of Jesus

1 For this reason the Lord endured giving His flesh over to corruption, so that by the forgiveness of sins we might be purified, and this purification comes through the blood of His sprinkling. 2 For the Scripture concerning Him contains some parts about Israel and some about us. And it says: ‘He was wounded for your transgressions, and He was bruised for our sins; by His stripes we were healed. Like a sheep He was led to slaughter; like a lamb before its shearer, He was silent.’ 3 We should therefore be very thankful to the Lord, because He revealed to us the past, made us wise in the present, and regarding the future, we do not lack understanding. 4 For Scripture says: ‘It is not in vain that the net is spread for the birds.’ He means that a person will justly perish who has knowledge of the path of righteousness but forces himself into the path of darkness. 5 Yet there is also this, my friends: If the Lord endured suffering for our souls—though He was Lord of the whole world, to whom God said from the foundation of the world, “Let Us make humanity in Our image and likeness”—how then did He endure being mistreated by humankind? 6 Understand: The prophets, receiving grace from Him, prophesied about Him. But He Himself suffered so that He might destroy death and show forth the resurrection of the dead, because He needed to appear in the flesh.⁠a 7 This was also so that He could fulfill the promise made to the ancestors, and by preparing a new people for Himself, show, while on earth, that after bringing about the resurrection, He will Himself exercise judgment. 8 And even further, He preached to Israel, performing so many wonders and miracles, and He loved them greatly. 9 And when He chose His own apostles—who were to proclaim His Gospel—He chose the greatest sinners to show that He came not to call the righteous but sinners, then He showed Himself to be the Son of God. 10 For if He had not come in the flesh, people could not have looked on Him and been saved. Indeed, when they look on the sun, which will someday cease to be (and which is the work of His hands), they cannot face its rays. 11 So the Son of God came in the flesh for this purpose—that He might sum up the total of their sins against those who persecuted and killed His prophets. 12 For this reason He endured. For God says of the wounds in His flesh that they came from them: ‘When they strike their own shepherd, then the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 13 But He Himself chose to suffer this way, for it was necessary for Him to suffer on a tree. For the one who prophesied said of Him: ‘Spare My soul from the sword’ and ‘Pierce My flesh with nails, for the gatherings of evildoers have risen up against Me.’ 14 And again He says: ‘See, I have given My back to stripes and My cheeks to blows, and I set My face like a hard rock.’