BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED

Good Friday, April 22, 2011


ISAIAH 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED.

By his wounds we are healed.” In the wounds of Christ is humanity’s healing.
Do our wounds also heal? This gaping wound in my chest – does it heal? What before I did not see, I now see; what before I did not feel, I now feel. But this raw bleeding cavity which needs so much healing, does it heal while waiting for healing? We are the body of Christ on earth. Does that mean that some of our wounds are his wounds, and that some of our wounds heal?

Is our suffering ever redemptive? I suppose the blood of the martyrs sometimes was. It was an instrument of God’s peace. But my suffering over my son, which I did not choose and would never choose: does that bring peace? How? To whom?

Is there something more to say than that death is the mortal enemy of peace? Can suffering over death – not living at peace with death but suffering in the face of death? – bring peace?

Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff.


PRAYER

So many people lost their lives in the eastern part of Japan, on March 11. Many more people now grieve the loss of their loved ones and the agony of missing family members and friends by the tsunami. The cherry blossom on the streets of villages and towns in all over Japan is piercingly beautiful to remind us of your love for this nation. Lord, hear their cries and heal their wounds by your blood.