Old Testament
Isaiah 53:4-6
4 Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
New Testament
1 John 2:1-2
1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counsellor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
Isaiah 53 speaks of a Servant who does not look away from pain: he bears griefs, carries sorrows, is wounded for transgressions, and by his wounds there is healing. The passage does not pretend suffering is small. It says God has stepped into it, and taken it on.
Lord Jesus, be near to all who need someone to stand with them. Teach your Church to advocate without cynicism, to tell the truth without cruelty, and to seek restoration because you have sought us, today.
John writes with pastoral honesty: we sin. Yet we are not left without help. “We have an advocate,” παράκλητος, with the Father: Jesus Christ the Righteous. The same word is used for the Spirit in John’s Gospel. We are not abandoned to our accusations or our regrets, and we are not left to argue our own case alone.
Victim support and restorative justice both need advocates: people who will speak truthfully for the harmed, and who will also insist that the guilty are not reduced to their worst act. Christ holds these together in his own person: justice that does not lie, mercy that does not evaporate, and a way of repair that costs him everything.