Patristic Wisdom for Good Friday

He bears our sins
And suffers for us,
Yet we considered Him to be in pain,
Suffering, and ill-treatment.
But he was wounded because of our lawlessness,
And became sick because of our sins.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
And by his bruise we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
Man has gone astray in his way,
And the Lord delivered him over for our sins.

(Isaiah 53:4–6 LXX)

This is the one who comes from heaven onto the earth for the suffering one,
and wraps himself in the suffering one through a virgin womb,
and comes as a man.
He accepted the suffering of the suffering one,
through suffering in a body which could suffer,
and set free the flesh from suffering.
Through the spirit which cannot die
he slew the manslayer death.
He is the one led like a lamb
and slaughtered like a sheep;
he ransomed us from the worship of the world
as from the land of Egypt,
and he set us free from the slavery of the devil
as from the hand of Pharaoh,
and sealed our souls with his own spirit,
and the members of our body with his blood.
This is the one who clad death in shame and, as Moses did to Pharaoh,
made the devil grieve.
This is the one who struck down lawlessness
and made injustice childless,
as Moses did to Egypt.
This is the one who delivered us from slavery to freedom,
from darkness into light,
from death into life,
from tyranny into an eternal Kingdom,
and made us a new priesthood,
and a people everlasting for himself.

Melito of Sardis, On Pascha 66–68