Post details: Christ Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
Christ Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
Last week I was attacked by two large dogs while I was riding my bicycle in my neighborhood. One dog was more vicious than the other, and bit me repeatedly and deeply on both legs, as I screamed in vain for help. The owners were not home, apparently, nor was anyone in the few other houses in the area.
I continued to try to protect myself from the dog by using my bicycle as a shield between me and the biting dog, who continued to charge toward me and try to get around the bicycle. It seemed like hours, screaming for help, knowing that I could not hold the dog off indefinitely, nor could I escape since both dogs were blocking my way and I couldn't move away.
In reality, it was probably only 5 or 10 minutes.
Finally, a car drove up, and the driver was able to distract the dog long enough to allow me to throw down my bike and jump in the passenger seat. The dog remained aggressive to the officers who responded, but he was eventually caught and later, after assuring he was current on his vaccines, put down, having been a “repeat offender” with several previous complaints of aggressive behavior.
A week later, after medical treatment and heavy antibiotics, the wounds are beginning to heal, and I am able to walk again with steady gait. Yet the memory remains. I cannot even begin to describe to those who have not experienced it, the way it feels to have an animal sink its teeth deeply into your bone and muscle tissue. The bites were so deep that there were puncture wounds from every single tooth in the dog’s jawline, and I now have a perfect imprint of the dog’s lower jaw on the back of my calf!
The first night, I didn’t sleep at all. It hurt! And every time I started to drop off, I would move one of my legs, and the pain would startle me awake, thinking I was getting bitten again.
While I was lying awake at night, playing that mental tape over and over, I kept thinking about being "pierced", and then thinking how much more than that Christ suffered physically for us. Each one of His "stripes" was much worse than this, and He knew that nobody would rescue Him. Indeed, He suffered all these things voluntarily for us, out of His great love for us. And His very real suffering in the Spirit was even worse as he took each and every one of our sins upon Himself, making His physical suffering almost inconsequential.
The following passages from the Hebrew Scriptures point directly to Christ. We can understand David's word when he speaks about a pack of dogs attacking him, and how Christ would come to suffer on our behalf through images such as David uses in this Psalm.
We may suffer greatly for our physicial and psychological injuries here in this life, and we think we know what intense pain and suffering is. Even so, we cannot fully comprehend how much Christ suffered on our behalf. We just know that His suffering was greater than we could ever bear.
Psalm 22:17-25 (JPS Tanakh)
17 For dogs have encompassed me; a company of evil-doers have inclosed me; like a lion, they are at my hands and my feet.
18 I may count all my bones; they look and gloat over me.
19 They part my garments among them, and for my vesture do they cast lots.
20 But Thou, O LORD, be not far off; O Thou my strength, hasten to help me.
21 Deliver my soul from the sword; mine only one from the power of the dog.
22 Save me from the lion's mouth; yea, from the horns of the wild-oxen do Thou answer me.
23 I will declare Thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
24 'Ye that fear the LORD, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and stand in awe of Him, all ye the seed of Israel.
25 For He hath not despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor; neither hath He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto Him, He heard.'
Isaiah 53:5 (JPS Tanakh)
But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed.
Thank God that He loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, our Messiah, as sacrifice for our sin, and to suffer and die for us, so that, with his stripes we were healed from that sin, and so that we would not know the eternal torment and suffering for our sins, and instead, share in His resurrection and eternal life with God!
