Pierced, Part II

You have heard me discuss the value of the gift of righteousness and eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. The Pearl is a collection of posts on the subject but here we identify with the cost for that great gift. The price He paid was so intense. It is undeniable that understanding His pain and suffering to provide us with life is the first step in understanding the true nature of God's love for us.

His pain that He suffered for us is so important for us to know and delve deep into. In knowing and understanding His passion for us, (although we may never know or understand the fullness of His pain) shows us God's compassion for humanity and helps us to understand true humility. What a awesome gift we have in Jesus and when you consider the magnitude of His suffering in order to obtain it for us it brings us closer to Him.

Jesus did not only suffer at the hands of men, physically but He also suffered separation and the wrath of God even after His death. Jesus suffered physically and spiritually (as we would have) for our sins. Paying the price and punishment in full for the sinful deeds of the world. The cup represents the sins of humanity.

That cup in the garden of Gethsemane was so dreadful for Jesus to consider. It was not the fear of death that drove Him to break out in sweat like great drops of blood but instead the fear of God's wrath and being taken from God the Father's presence. In the 2nd chapter of Jonah, we see prophetic mirrors of Christ's pain and suffering. Although spoken by Jonah as he was trapped in the belly of the whale for three days, they are the words of Christ.

^{Jonah 2:1-4}

¹ From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. ² He said:
"In my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.

³ You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.

⁴ I said, 'I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.'

And again in verse 6 we see God's redemption through raising Jesus from the dead.

^{Jonah 2:6}

⁶ To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O LORD my God.

Pierced, Part I

One of the most profound things to find as a Christian is how Christ's sufferings are to be remembered and more importantly the impact that it has on one's life. The Holy Spirit is heavy upon me when I remember the stings of pain that Jesus suffered at the cross. Just as God the Father encouraged and commanded that the Israelites remember Him and His ways, so Jesus commanded us to remember Him in communion.

Through imagining the suffering of Christ during Gethsamene and to the grave puts a new spin on knowing Him. I see the suffering and pain of His cross and at first it did not seem to have much impact on me but in time it became a dramatic "sense" of His pain. It puts us in touch with Him even though it is only the images of our imagination. How feeble it is to remember His pain knowing that you could never truly know or imagine what He went through.

To experience His pain is to understand the value of the gift of grace that is imparted to us. I believe it is an essential element to my own walk with God. I believe that in His sufferings, we may find the deepest meaning of His love for us. The love of God is all about sacrifice, about denying self, and humility.

Isaiah 52:13-15

13 See, my servant will act wisely ;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him —
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness—

15 so will he sprinkle many nations, 
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.