Kasa Paharin Lyrics by Nimesh Fernando

What you carried was our sorrow,
what you bore was our grief
you were wounded because of our wrongdoing
you went to the cross because of our sin

Like sheep, having gone astray,
we turned each to our own ways
for the sake of the salvation of us all,
you bore our wrongs upon yourself

By the lash… until your body was torn apart..
by the crown of thorns… until your head was pierced..
by the nail-blows… until you died upon the cross..
you loved me.. truly you loved me…

This is a Passion hymn, a meditation on the suffering and death of Jesus, and it draws almost line for line on the ancient prophecy of Isaiah about the suffering servant. It opens by naming what Christ took upon himself, and the emphasis falls hard on the word “our”: “what you carried was our sorrow, what you bore was our grief, you were wounded because of our wrongdoing, you went to the cross because of our sin.” Every line insists that his suffering was not for himself but for the people singing.

The second verse gives the reason in one of the Bible’s most famous images: “like sheep, having gone astray, we turned each to our own ways.” Humanity is the flock that wandered off, and “for the sake of the salvation of us all,” Christ “bore our wrongs upon himself.” The hymn does not flinch from human guilt; it places the whole weight of it on the cross.

The final section is the most unflinching and the most tender. It lingers, almost unbearably, on the physical agony, “by the lash, until your body was torn; by the crown of thorns, until your head was pierced; by the nail-blows, until you died upon the cross,” and then answers all that horror with a single, quiet refrain: “you loved me, truly you loved me.” That is the whole meaning of the song. It looks straight at the brutality of the crucifixion and reads in it not cruelty but love, the astonishing love of a God willing to be torn apart for the sake of the ones who had wandered away.