Lesson # 25: Wounded
Kentucky Division Chaplain Chaltas

Have you ever been wounded? Have you ever been scarred physically as well as emotionally? A couple of years ago I am ashamed to say, I was feeding an ole stray cat when the lid caught my finger and sliced it open. It was dark and I felt the throbbing but did not note the blood. I walked down to my daughter's and knocked on the door. She answered and upon seeing my shirt soaked with blood almost fell to her knees. She drove me to the ER and there I received 8 stitches. I had no choice but to receive the shot and stitches. I share this for a purpose. The Bible states in Isaiah 23: 5 that "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities." But Isaiah offers even more insight as a gruesome picture is painted. Chapter 53: 3-4 states, "He is despised and rejected by men. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." Whenever I read this I tremble. The words are so descriptive and were written on my heart. BUT the full realization of the brutality of Christ's wounds came crashing down when I saw The Passion. I witnessed Him being ridiculed, spit upon, slapped, beaten, mocked, whipped and tortured. I can see in my minds eye the cat of nine tails ripping into His flesh, tearing chunks of skin from His body. I can hear His moans as they place a crown of thorns on His head, forcing it into his brow as His blood of purity begins to freely flow. I can hear the thud of a fist crashing into our Savior's face as they mock Him. I feel that I am holding the hammer as I drive the nails into his wrists and secure His feet in the same fashion. I can hear His words of forgiveness and compassion for lost world as He hangs on the cross. I can see the spear pierce His side. Imagine the Son of God choosing to suffer such anguish so that we might live. There is no doubt that if He had called out to His father, our Father, that ten thousand angels would have been dispatched to rescue Him. But He chose to stay and offer His all for us.

Maybe the next time we feel wounded, scarred or get injured we should reflect upon Him and what He did for us. John 3:16 says it all. John 15:13 sums it up in perfect fashion. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." Could you have suffered such an ordeal to help others? My answer would be no. I could not have given my life for the world. Maybe my children and a select group of people but not the world. BUT that is why He is God and the greatness of His love. And we can not fathom the love of God. "For God so loved the world." His gift to mankind was His most precious possession; His Son. Although at times we are wounded and at times we are scarred, can we not rejoice in the knowledge that God loves us and cares so much that He offers us eternal salvation through the Wounded Healer. Rejoice in all things for this shell shall be cast off but through Christ's passion and we will know the joys of heaven.

5:18 PM 6/15/2005