Healed by Jesus’ Wounds

‘… by his wounds we are healed.’ Isaiah 53.5

This stunning phrase forms part of Isaiah’s vision of the work of the coming Messiah, and how he will bring about his amazing ministry.

When we read about the person of Jesus and all that he achieved – salvation, forgiveness, healing – it is easy to regard him as a Superman-type person who swoops down to bring God’s help to those struggling on earth.  However, this phrase reveals that far from swooping down like Superman, Jesus suffered deeply for the healing he sought to bring us.  Everything in his ministry, both in times gone by and in the present, cost him deeply.  He didn’t just give us his ‘spare change’ – he gave us his life.

Over the next few days we are going to look at some of the different ways in which Jesus took our suffering upon himself, but for today, let’s reflect on the nature of his love for us.  His love was so real that he willingly chose to experience the depths of anguish and pain that we suffer, not just to see what it was like but in order to take that pain upon himself.

If you are suffering in some way, and whatever your feelings about it, one thing you cannot say to Jesus is that he doesn’t know what you are going through.  He knows about it, because he chose to experience it so that he might take it away.

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