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

Come, Marvel, and Glorify

When the Lord had clothed himself with humanity, and had suffered for the sake of the sufferer, and had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned, and had been judged for the sake of the condemned, and buried for the sake of the one who was buried, he rose up from the dead, and cried aloud with this voice:

Who is he who contends with me?  Let him stand in opposition to me.  I set the condemned man free; I gave the dead man life; I raised up the one who had been entombed.  Who is my opponent?  I am the Christ.  I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hades under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven, I am the Christ.  Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins.  I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your savior, I am your resurrection, I am your king, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by my right hand.

This is the one who made the heavens and the earth, and who in the beginning created man, who was proclaimed through the law and prophets, who became human via the virgin, who was hanged upon a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from the dead, and who ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who has authority to judge and to save everything, through whom the Father created everything from the beginning of the world to the end of the age.  This is the alpha and the omega.  This is the beginning and the end–an indescribable beginning and an incomprehensible end.  This is the Christ.  This is the king.  This is Jesus.  This is the general.  This is the Lord.  This is the one who rose up from the dead.  This is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father.  He bears the Father and is borne by the Father, to whom be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.

Melito of Sardis, On the Passover 100-105