"Made sin for us"

In the second reading of today’s liturgy, 2 Cor 5: 20-6:2, we are confronted with the following truth:  “For our sake…[God] made…[Jesus] to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”  As I meditated on this passage, my heart clung to the statement “He was made sin for us.”  “Made sin!” The Son of God Incarnate, the Holiest of Holy, in His incarnate nature is “made sin” for us. No wonder Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My soul is sorrowful unto death.”   The ugliest of the ugly: sin itself for “one who knew no sin.” 

Recently, in a magazine entitled “The Week,” I read a brief article about George Zimmerman, who killed Travon Martin and was acquitted of that murder. He was bemoaning the fact that he is scorned by society, his life has been threatened repeatedly, he is not safe and carries a hefty financial debt for legal fees.  Jesus was scorned.  Jesus was a hunted man, threatened by the Pharisees repeatedly as they sought  a way to justify killing him. Jesus was not acquitted but put to death for our sakes. “He was made sin for us.”

Every sin throws us into the darkness of shame and guilt.  The more hideous the sin, the uglier are the consequences.  Jesus bore those consequences for us so that we might “become the righteousness of God in him.”  What love! What mercy!

O, God, have mercy on me for the part I played in the burden you carried to the cross for me