Holy Healing: the Greatest Sacrifice

Chances are you have experienced affliction and sorrow you never expected: intense pain that reaches deep into your souls, leaving you dry and withered, groaning for relief. You long for healing.

I’ve read and heard accounts of suffering that left me staggering. Stories of horror unimagined. However, none left more of a mark on my life than the chronicled nightmare lived by Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary experienced more death in 3 years than we will in our entire lives. Let’s journey there to gain perspective.

The Unimaginable

Imagine your son, your firstborn, a true miracle in every sense of the word. A promise of God—God Himself in fact (as crazy as that is to understand)—sinless and demonstrating amazing insight and understanding, He is determined to campaign against everything your world holds sacred.

As a mother, you are naturally nervous about how He will be received, with good cause. Laws are strict and punishment for transgressors severe.

You realize His is a purpose much grander than any before Him. That much was revealed to you. But, still, you worry as He begins to preach against the government and, perhaps worse, the religious leaders.

Your beloved son is ridiculed and persecuted, laughed at, chased out of towns, accused of being demon possessed.

He was sent from God to be a savior. How does this accomplish that purpose? Perhaps He is possessed.

You can’t help giving into doubt, wondering if maybe He is misconstruing God’s plan. After all, your other sons and daughters scoff at Him as well.

Perhaps you misheard the angel Gabriel when he proclaimed Jesus’ kingdom lasting forever. Maybe you imagined the visit from the shepherds so long ago.

After all, you just experienced the stress of giving birth, in a stable no less. And Simeon might have meant something entirely different when he described your son as God’s salvation.

Your anxiety mounts as the ridicules and taunts turn into physical confrontations and threats. Soon your worst fears are confirmed. The son of your innocence is arrested.

God’s Plan?

Surely this isn’t God’s plan. How can Jesus be the promised king if He is in prison? He’s performed so many miracles; perhaps He’ll rescue Himself in this manner.

It becomes evident rather quickly: Jesus has upset some very influential people. They are out to, not only arrest Him, but take His life. Your heart constricts at the sight of Him beaten and bloody, for no other reason than healing the sick and disabled, bringing the dead to life and preaching.

He hasn’t done anything wrong! You scream into closed ears and hard hearts. The agony of each minute is almost unbearable as you wait with bated breath for some sign of the mistake this must be.

The sentence? Unbelievable—death—and the most horrific death of a slow, torturous suffocation on a Roman cross.

Scanning the crowds for even one sympathizer, you search for any glimmer of hope. The light dims, darkness descends, you die little by little. Jesus, scourged and swollen beyond recognition, stumbles to His death. The hatred in the air is palpable.

Your mind relives His birth, so peaceful and surreal. How can such beauty transform into this magnitude of horror.

Tears flowing, hands trembling, you accompany a few of your son’s closest friends to witness the crucifixion: beseeching God to intervene. Willing yourself to take each step, you finally arrive, only to have your heart ripped out with each moan, piece by agonizing piece.

Helpless, withered, beaten, you will it to be over. And soon, with His last gasp of breath, the son of your soul delivers the fatal blow to your spirit, uttering the words “It is finished!”

And truly it is—and isn’t.

The Beginning of Hope and Healing

Yes, Jesus’ physical, human body died. But it didn’t end there. Oh, no, it was far from ending!

In fact, it was just the beginning. Indeed, the glorious beginning of life through death—for Mary as well as for you and me.

Jesus’ death paved the way to hope and healing from all our wounds. Allow yourself to rest in that truth as the Great Physician heals your heart.

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“I will rejoice and be glad in Your faithful love because You have seen my affliction. You have known the troubles of my life and have not handed me over to the enemy. You have set my feet in a spacious place” (Psalm 31:7–8).

Reflections: How have you been wounded? Have you found your way into the arms of the Holy Healer? Can I pray for you?

By His grace ≈

Julie