So Great a Salvation

When bursitis in one shoulder made me see stars and take several doses of Motrin just to make the pain bearable, I was thanking God I had at least one good arm to use while I healed. That’s when I began thinking about Jesus on the cross. It made me consider the terrible suffering He must have gone through, and how much our salvation cost Him.

I imagine both His shoulders were out of joint from hanging on that cross.  And what of those thorns jammed into his head? The pain must have been excruciating.  And consider the torn flesh on his back that he had to keep scraping against that wooden beam whenever he pushed up to try to catch his breath, as he slowly suffocated. And oh, what the nails must have done, pounded into his hands and feet, ripping flesh, tendons, muscles and bone! And there were flies too.  Swarming and landing on the bloody wounds, irritating and tormenting, and no means of swatting them away. And the salt from His sweat surely had to burn as it seeped into His open sores.

And if that wasn’t terrible enough, what about Jesus’ emotional and mental state? As each one of our sins was laid on Him, the enormity of the grief and guilt and shame and sadness caused by sin was laid on Him too. Oh, the blackness of soul, the utter hopelessness He must have felt! Surely, our sins broke His heart.

But the worst part of all had to be separation from Abba, Daddy. “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” conveys the isolation and despair Jesus must have felt; Jesus Who once declared “I and my Father are one,” (John 10:30) and “the Father is in me and I in him.” (John 10:38) What mind can truly understand the trinity? But since we are also a triune being—spirit, soul (mind and emotions) and body (I Thessalonians 5:23)—perhaps it would be like being separated from one of our parts: foreign, lonely, desperately unsettling. But it was necessary for Jesus to become separated from God so we could become reconciled.

I don’t know if all eternity will be enough for those who love Jesus and have come to know Him to properly thank and honor Him for what He did and for what He saved us from. But considering the enormity of His sacrifice, is it any wonder that Scripture goes on to say, “How shall we escape appropriate retribution if we neglect and refuse to pay attention to such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3 Amplified Bible)

Until next week,

Sylvia