By His Wounds

Isaiah 53: 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

It was, well, rather messy. The doctor had a plane to catch that evening with her husband, and during the so-called “minor surgery,” she was vocalizing her disappointment about all the blood that was getting on her clothes. This was my blood she was talking about. Fortunately, the local anesthetic she administered kept me from feeling the incision she had cut in my scalp, but I was able to see all of my blood which had been projected onto the doctor like oil from a BP gas pipe, only without the ecological consequences. I began to wonder if I was going to need a pint of blood to be added to my system.

It’s been said that “minor surgery” is that procedure that is performed on someone else…not on you. When I was in the office of a dermatologist the week before Memorial Day, the procedure was, to me, anything but minor. From a medical point of view, there was nothing to it: the doctor would deaden the area around the cyst on my head, make a small incision, drain the cyst, and then stop the bleeding with pressure. However, since it was my head she was operating on, I was very unsettled by even the thought of what was happening. I made jokes during the procedure to help keep myself calm as I was bleeding from being pierced by the scalpel.

The cyst presented no threat to my health; I just wanted it removed. What does present a threat to my health…to my Spiritual, eternal health…is not a cyst, but is sin. T

here was a piercing that was done years ago for my sin to be removed. When the Roman soldier pieced the side of Jesus to ensure that He was dead on the cross, it was messy. Jesus had no anesthetic to deaden the pain. But while it is possible for my cyst to return, with the acceptance of the gift of Jesus’ shed blood, the disease of sin will be cured forever. Sin is a deadly threat to our Spiritual health, and thank God, He gives us a chance for it to be removed.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. By His wounds, we are healed.

Thank you to Jonathan Ibarra for sharing these thoughts!