UpLifts For Life

This week has brought me much pain as a close and good friend passed away unexpectedly and too early in his life. He was a great inspiration to me and my life’s goals. This is dedicated to my good friend and in his memory, this is for you Alvin.

In Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus suffered pain of body and spirit in totality.  It caused Him to sweat blood and shrink, but He saw it through.  Then Judas, a friend, betrayed Him with a kiss.

Peter grabbed his sword – remember – and rushed to defend the Savior.  But the Savior stopped him saying, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53)

Jesus knew the suffering ahead of Him, and yet not only did He go willingly to the scourging and the cross, He wouldn’t allow anyone to take it from Him.  And again, Roman soldiers led Jesus up Golgotha’s hill to crucify Him.  Crucifixion was torture!  It was agony!

Before they nailed Him to the cross, they offered Him to drink vinegar mingled with gall, and when He had tasted the vinegar, He wouldn’t drink.  Gall was a drug that was intended to deaden the pain.  So why did the Savior refuse it? – because He wanted the pain.  He had to have it, all of it – all of ours for all of us.

Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world.  The cross was part of His atonement by which He paid for our sins and redeemed us.  His suffering was essential to an infinite atonement.

There is pain of the body, and there’s pain of the spirit.  It is our nature as mortals that when we hurt, we want it to go away.  The health care industry is a testament to the price we are willing to pay for remedies to our pain.  When I hurt, personally, all I can think of is ending the pain – now!

Pain can be healed, avoided, or ignored.  Jesus did none of these.  His incomprehensible pain had purpose, and He invited it.  And as a perfect man, He would feel everything perfectly; nothing diminished His anguish.  Moreover, the Father gave Jesus a greater measure of pain for His mortal sojourn than any other person has every borne.  And Jesus bore it meekly.

Isaiah used the word “bear” deliberately when he said “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…  By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities…  he bare the sin of many.”  (Isaiah 53: 4, 11, 12)

Oh, it is wonderful what He bore!  I stand all amazed that He stood it.  By His pain I live; by my own pain I learn.
Praise be to God for pain.  And for you that are in pain, patience child, it will pass.

Thanks to Glenn Rawson for his understanding of the scriptures as he shared these thoughts which have  helped me in the dealing of the lost of a great friend.