Scars

The human body’s capacity to heal amazes me.   I find it crazy how flesh and bone can rebuild to fix an injury or wound.  I can’t explain the science, but I don’t need to understand it to see how powerful the body’s healing process is.  Unfortunately, as fascinating and complete as healing can be, it does not always heal everything.  We still carry scars from past injuries.  I have a scar on my left hand from an “axe”-ident last summer.  Another on my right wrist was from a Costco cookie container – seriously.  Plastic is deadly.  And, though I think it has pretty much fully healed, my left eyelid got scratched when my glasses were broken.  If you play soccer, wear contacts.

And then there are the so-called “spiritual wounds” we all carry.  We get these when we have been lustful, proud, told lies, or when we’ve done any other bad thing.  Not only do these wounds mark ourselves, but they hurt others, too.  We don’t see these scars on our bodies, but we sure feel them.  They torture our consciences and break our relationship with God.

But, as a hymn tells us, “there was One Who was willing to die in my [our] stead.”  The Son of God went to the Cross and died for our forgiveness.  We can read about this in Isaiah chapter 53, an Old Testament passage that tells us a lot about Christ’s role in our salvation.  Verses 4-5 say “Surely He [Christ] has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed.”

The New Testament book of Hebrews continues with this line of thought.  In Hebrews 10 we read about how Christ became the final sacrifice – the only one necessary for our salvation.  Then, starting at verse 19: “Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Communion, or the Lord's Supper, of which we partake of every Sunday, is a testimony to Jesus' sacrifice.  As we participate in it, we are to remember Christ and His earthly Body, which was broken and wounded.  And we remember His Blood which washes us clean from those “spiritual blemishes” I mentioned earlier.  We will fall short of God’s standard, even after we become Christians.  But remember always that there was One willing to take your sins upon Himself, healing you and forgiving you.

~ Christian Basar