April 3, 2006. Good Friday of the Lord's Passion.

A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

See, my servant shall prosper. He shall be raised high and greatly exalted.

Even as many were amazed at him, so marred was his look beyond human semblance,

and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man. So shall he startle many nations. Because of him,

kings shall stand speechless. For those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it.

Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up

like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth. There was in him no stately bearing to make

us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by people,

a man of suffering accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned,

and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he

endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for

our offenses, crushed for our sins. Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole. By his

stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way, but the Lord laid upon him

the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth. Like a lamb

led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny?

When he was cut off from the land of the living and smitten for the sin of his people,

a grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evil-doers, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any

falsehood, but the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his

descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.

Because of his affliction, he shall see the light in fullness of days. Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he

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