Good Morning Girlfriends!
I trust that everyone is having a good week. My week has been busy...especially coming off of the weekend we had! Settle in Girls, today we are going on (what I fear may be a lengthy) field trip. In light of the subject matter, I have traded my usual pink, for a more subdued black. So last weekend my church had its annual camping weekend at Lake Livingston State Park. This a beautiful area with pine trees and bike trails and big ditches with fallen trees for the kids to play all over. There were several families from the church that went, with most of us having three or more kiddos, which made for interesting head-counts. Well, the kids had a blast with their own version of the Redneck Olympics with the ditch and the trees and the make-shift swing that my husband had constructed from an old piece of wood and a rope. Right around lunch time on Saturday, as the adults were at the campsite some 150 yards from the play area of the kids, we hear the unmistakeable sounds of screaming. These were not your average, run-of-the-mill screams of mild irritation. These were the screams of utter panic and fear. Fifteen kids were running at full speed back to the adults yelling that Ethan (my oldest) was badly hurt. My heart stopped. In fact, I can feel my face flushing as I'm typing this...days later. He was trying to run with these kids back to camp, but he was crying, "My head! My head is OPEN!" He had been hit with the wooden swing, and was now bleeding copiously from the back of the head. Now, head wounds of any size bleed like crazy. Your head is full veins. He had in fact, been knocked good enough that we knew a trip to the ER was needed, and fast.
As we walked to the truck, I tried to apply pressure to the back of his head to stop the bleeding. My friend Lesli, a nurse and in that moment an angel, came running with a towel to do the job my bare hand could not. She slid into the backseat of Jeff's truck and made the thirty mile trip into town with us. Ethan remained awake and alert, but asked me, "Mom, am I going to bleed out?" Granted, he took a good blow to the head, BUT I really didn't think he was in danger of bleeding out. I had to smile. It made me think of Someone else....
There is a popular video game on the market that I absolutely despise. It's a war game, that is full of shoot-em-up, blow-em-up and destroy the bad guys type of game. It is violent and graphic. When one of your guys gets shot, a message flashes on the screen that says, "You're bleeding out. You need health." Then your fellow soldiers come and revive you. It's a horrible game. Obviously my son has played this game or he would know the terminology. Terrific. As many of you know, we are smack dab in the middle of Lent. We are on our way to the Cross of Calvary, to the grave and then to the Empty Tomb. But before we can go to any of those places, we first have to visit with the prophet Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is buried deep in the Old Testament. Yep. The Old Testament will direct us to the greatest travesty of human justice, yet most beautiful display of God's grace ever shown to mankind. Jesus Christ came to die for our sins, but first, He was the suffering Servant. God revealed this message to the prophet Isaiah some seven hundred years before Jesus was born. I'm going to show you a passage from Isaiah, then the fulfillment in the New Testament. Stay with me, I promise the outcome will amaze you.
We know that Jesus was beaten by the Roman soldiers. We read in Matthew 27:30, "They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again." Isaiah saw this beating, and believe me Girls, this was a beating. Isaiah 52:14 "Just as there were many who were appalled at him--his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--" Can you imagine? Jesus was flogged, as directed by Pilate. (see Mark 15:15) Now the Jewish people put limits on the number of times a person could be whipped, however the Romans exercised no such restraint. More often than not, victims of a flogging did not survive. We keep reading from Isaiah, in chapter 53:5 "...he was pierced for our transgressions..." and then we see as Jesus hung on the Cross from John 19:34, "...one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." I have one more parallel to show you. This is the one that ties the whole thing together. Ethan was worried about bleeding out, which he didn't, but Jesus actually did. And this was all part of God's plan. From Isaiah 53:12 "Therefore I will give him him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (emphasis added) Jesus Himself tells the disciples during the Last Supper, "'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,'" Mark 14:34 (emphasis added) Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that He would essentially "bleed out". He knew He would carry His own Cross through the streets and endure the mocking (Is 53:3), He knew that He would be cut off from His heavenly Father for a time (Is 53:4) while He alone dealt with the full weight of the all the sins of all the people of the entire world (Is 53:10). Jesus endured the beating, He endured the flogging, He allowed the Roman soldiers to nail His holy body to the Cross. Why? So that you and I would never have to go through those horrors. Through the blood of Christ Jesus, our suffering Servant, our lives are secured.
You know, Ethan also asked me if he was going to die. It sounds comical now, but in the moment and in his nine year old mind, that was a valid question. I assured him, that no, he was not going to die. I have to confess, I sound a lot more calm now, than I actually was last Saturday. As his mother, seeing my son in pain and covered in blood, made me weak at the knee (to the point of spending the majority of the time at the hospital on the floor). I knew he was in good hands. The hospital staff was much more capable of putting staples into his head than I was. This is where Lesli came into play. She held everything together and made sure the job was done right, while Jeff and I were somewhat clueless. I want to ask you, what are you dealing with today that is making you weak at the knee? Do you need to hand something over to Someone whose hands are more capable and more skilled for that task than yours? You know, Jesus' hands are strong and crazy talented when it comes to dealing with over-the-top problems. Trust in Him today. I did some heavy-duty praying on the drive to Livingston Memorial last weekend. I knew that I couldn't handle what was coming alone, but through the intercession of Jesus, I could. What will you trust Him for today? I promise, He will not shy away from the Call of Duty. Ethan is pretty pumped about the scar that will eventually form in the back of his head, but I tell you something: I'm pretty pumped about the wounds of Christ. Through his wounds, I am healed....and so are you. Have a blessed week!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Trinity Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod)
Lenten Worship Schedule
April 13 (Wed) 10:30 AM, 7:15 PM Worship
HOLY WEEK
April 21 (Thurs) 10:30 AM, 7:15 PM Maundy Thursday
April 22 (Fri) 10:30 AM, 7:15 PM Good Friday/Tenebrae*
April 24 (Sun) 6:00 AM Easter Sunrise Service
8:00 AM,
9:30 AM,
11:00 AM Worship/Communion
*The Tenebrae service is an extremely somber service done in progressing darkness. It is by far, my favorite service of the year!
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