Stop the Insanity!

1 Peter 2:21-25, The Message – This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

He never did one thing wrong,

Not once said anything amiss.

They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

                How is it even possible for Jesus to do what he did and not do what he didn’t do?  He was constantly maligned, being accused of things he never did and not once did He return the favor.  I get upset when someone accuses of me of something I have indeed done before, only not the time they are accusing me.  Jesus endured all kind of toxic anger and never “took it out” on anyone.  I wish I could say that, but it wouldn’t be a true statement even if I’m only counting the last 24 hours.  He was crucified and, on the cross with nails through His hands and feet, he forgives those who did it to Him.  I still am able to summon resentment for relatively small offenses that happened long ago. 

                What’s even more inconceivable is that Jesus not only carried the pain of all that was done to him without inflicting pain in return, He carried all the pain of all of our sins in his body and did not sin himself.  When I say that is inconceivable, I mean that I literally cannot wrap my brain around the possibility of Jesus being able to do that. 

                Peter says he was able to do it by “let(ting) God set things right.”  Jesus trusted God to take care of all the injustice of the sin perpetrated against him AND all that had gone wrong before or since.  What I want to point out is that Jesus took his last breath on the cross still believing that God would make that right.  He died before having knowledge that it all had been made right – that God had, in fact, set things right. 

                What I want to ask at this point is, “why would we expect that it would be any different for us?”  To ask it another way, why do we expect to have everything taken care of on this side of our last breath when even Jesus wasn’t afforded that luxury?  He carried the entire history of sin for the whole world “in his body” to his death trusting that God would heal it all but not ever getting any confirmation email that “all is well” before he took his last breath.  Or did he?  Was that what he was expressing when he uttered “it is finished” with his actual last breath?  I don’t know.

                But what I do know is what it is like to carry the pain of sin (mine and others) in my body.  I have self-inflicted wounds caused by my own choices and attitudes.  I also carry wounds in my body inflicted by others (intentionally and unintentionally, with malice and without).   The pain of both of these kinds of wounds flares up sometimes without warning.  Because I am unprepared for the flare up, it often causes me to transmit that pain to others.  My wounds perpetuate themselves in the lives of others through that transmittal.  This is the cancer of sin works. 

                But Peter says there is a cure and it’s already passed full FDA approval.

 “His wounds became y(our) healing.” 

We weren’t meant to carry the wounds of sin.  We were meant to do what Jesus did.  On this side of our last breath, we are supposed to trust that God has already taken care of the sin and that it will be made right in the end.  Us carrying those wounds doesn’t do anything redemptive, because we aren’t Jesus.  But instead, we have convinced ourselves that holding onto offenses will somehow enable us, at some point, to make it right ourselves.  There is no way to say this with enough tact to remove the sting; THAT IS A LIE WE HAVE CHOSEN TO BELIEVE.  You and I are carrying that pain for no good purpose. 

Christ already carried it to the cross so God could heal it.  Why do we keep taking it back? I don’t know, but I know it’s insanity.  This is why I’m obsessed with writing about forgiveness.  I know it is the answer to this insanity.    It is to way to do what Dr. Peter prescribes.  It’s how Jesus’s wounds become our healing.  Forgive.   Let go.   Heal.

Question:  What pain are you currently carrying that you could let Jesus carry instead? 

Prayer:  Jesus, help us stop the insanity of trying to make things right by ourselves.  Help us trust fully in what you have already done to make it right and help us hold onto that trust until we take our last breath.  Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know who are carrying the pain of their own sin and/or the pain caused by the sin of others

Song: At The Foot Of the Cross (Ashes To Beauty) Kathryn Scott