For slaves still languishing under the weight of a crushed spirit or the pain of an open back, Peter’s use of the past tense is jarring. The benefit of Jesus’ suffering on Good Friday is not simply that on the Last Day (in the future!) we will no longer carry any scars (Revelation 21:4), but that already in this life God’s people can get over the wrongs done to them precisely because of Jesus’ suffering “for” them (1 Peter 2:21). So the wounds that Joseph received in the course of his being kidnapped by his brothers and sold to the traders, his being auctioned in Egypt, his abuse at the hands of Potiphar’s wife, his languishing in prison for an indefinite length of time did not lead to bitterness; instead, by (faith in) Jesus’ (future) work his wounds were healed, and he could be a blessing to many even as a slave.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.