By His Stripes

I am in a state of numbness. My spirit is quiet, my body is still - I sit in silence. All that I hear is the ticking of the clock. It is 10:40 on a Saturday night - tomorrow is Easter Sunday (April 27th). My spirit has been heavy, numb, and quiet all day. I watched The Passion of the Christ last night, amazed that I sat and watched the severe flogging that my Christ endured - His skin ripped by shards of glass or metal pieces. Scripture tells us that by his stripes we are healed. In the movie He accepts the stripes upon His body with amazing strength and willingness. The anguish He experienced in Gethsemane could have been from His sovereign understanding of the immense pain that we would soon suffer - the stripes upon His Divine being in human flesh, enduring the fullness of it all. I simply cannot wrap my mind around this - It's too much sometimes. Oh the humility of the Divine Savior! He allowed His own creation to spit, mock, slap, beat, and ultimately kill Him. Oh the love of my Lord! My eyes are closed and my mind is slow.

Later that week...Mark 15:33-34 says, "At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In the Easter message it was mentioned that Jesus died two deaths - a spiritual death and a physical death. It was explained that while Jesus hung on the cross (as described in Mark 15:33-34 - "At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land") from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, He bore the sin of mankind. The physical torture and the mental, emotional, and spiritual torment of the rejection of His creation, Christ endured. The sheer ugliness of sin, Christ accepted. Then at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" You see, the Father had to turn away from His blessed son - why? - Because Jesus was completely consumed by sin. And God, in His Holiness cannot be near sin - sin will always keep us from experiencing the fullness of God's presence. Jesus' physical death took place when He cried out again in a loud voice, "It is finished", and he gave up his spirit (Mark 27:50; Matthew 19:30). Ironically, I had always wondered what Jesus meant when he said, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" Jesus' body literally bore the open wounds of sin - for a visual of what sin looks like, think about the image of Jesus on the cross in The Passion of the Christ. Sin will always keep us from enjoying God's Holy presence. Sin rips through our flesh and it bruises our hearts. Unacknowledged sin infects the health of our souls and it poisons our minds. We too, must endure death - death of self. Self will always push itself to the top making it the priority of our lives. Selfish ambitions and a self-centered focus will always keep us from enjoying the fullness of God's presence - the warmth and the peace that radiates from His Holiness. Oh what a Savior we have! His stripes have clearly marked the pathway to the healing presence of our heavenly Father. Thank you Jesus for enduring the fullness of our sin and for healing - healing that has comes to us through the stripes that you so willingly accepted for all mankind. Praise your Holy name!