A couple of things have been stirring in my heart lately, and I've been itching to get them down on paper. The first thing happened on Easter Sunday, during the sermon at church. My pastor preached on the “marring of Jesus” - something I'd never thought much about. Isaiah 52:14 reads, “...His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness.”
I'd always assumed that the “marring” of Jesus took place during the physical beatings and scourging that happened prior to Jesus going to the cross. But my pastor asked a question that literally made me stop in my tracks. What if the marring actually took place while He was on the cross? What if it happened during the very moment when the sin of the world was laid upon Jesus, and God the Father had to forsake His own Son because He could not look upon sin? What if sin is even uglier than anything we could ever imagine?
The hatred one person feels for another – laid upon Jesus. The haughtiness of pride, the bitter taste of unforgiveness, the burning of rage – all laid upon my Lord. All the shame, the guilt, the filthiness of heart that sin brings... what if this is what marred Him beyond recognition? “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.” Matthew 27:45. Jesus bore the sin of the world alone. Without the fellowship of His Father. In total darkness. And it marred Him beyond recognition. The thought of my sin marring my Lord does something to me. It makes me look at it differently somehow. Makes me hate it even more. And also makes me wonder... how marred does my own heart become whenever I entertain sin?
This brings me to the second thing that happened. In a devotional by Amy Carmichael, missionary to India during the early 1900's, I read the following quote for April 10:
“Do we hate enough? I hate all evil ways the writer of Psalm 119 said in verse 104, and in verse 128 All false ways I utterly abhor. Do we truly hate every false way? Or are we covering up something which will one day come out to our shame before God and His holy angels? There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known (Matt. 10:26). Do we hate unkind suspicions, whisperings, backbitings, all unlove? ... Do we hate all weakening things, or are we sliding along in an easy kind of tolerance that is far removed from the “hate” of such verses as this? Do we hate laziness and slackness and all kinds of selfishness? See that you love all that God loves, but see that you hate all that He hates. If we don't know how to hate, we don't know how to love.”
The question that came to me that pierced my heart like sword was this: Do I truly hate the things which marred my Lord?
Do I hate the pride that sneaks into my heart when I least expect it? Do I hate the bitterness I feel toward people that have hurt me? Do I hate all forms of gossip, all the words I've said in anger, the irreverence and carelessness that causes me to put other things before the Lord?
I truly want to loathe every form of sin that was laid upon my Jesus. To hate it just as much as I love Him. To realize that pride is as ugly as murder. Unforgiveness is as ugly as drunkenness or sexual sin or lust. Little white lies and a gossiping tongue put Him on that cross just as much as idolatry and adultery did. I want to hate ALL sin, no matter what form it takes. To hate it enough to run from it with every fiber of my being, refusing to flirt with it even for a moment. To not allow its ugliness to sear and mar my heart, desensitizing me to its darkness.
I'd always assumed that the “marring” of Jesus took place during the physical beatings and scourging that happened prior to Jesus going to the cross. But my pastor asked a question that literally made me stop in my tracks. What if the marring actually took place while He was on the cross? What if it happened during the very moment when the sin of the world was laid upon Jesus, and God the Father had to forsake His own Son because He could not look upon sin? What if sin is even uglier than anything we could ever imagine?
The hatred one person feels for another – laid upon Jesus. The haughtiness of pride, the bitter taste of unforgiveness, the burning of rage – all laid upon my Lord. All the shame, the guilt, the filthiness of heart that sin brings... what if this is what marred Him beyond recognition? “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land.” Matthew 27:45. Jesus bore the sin of the world alone. Without the fellowship of His Father. In total darkness. And it marred Him beyond recognition. The thought of my sin marring my Lord does something to me. It makes me look at it differently somehow. Makes me hate it even more. And also makes me wonder... how marred does my own heart become whenever I entertain sin?
This brings me to the second thing that happened. In a devotional by Amy Carmichael, missionary to India during the early 1900's, I read the following quote for April 10:
“Do we hate enough? I hate all evil ways the writer of Psalm 119 said in verse 104, and in verse 128 All false ways I utterly abhor. Do we truly hate every false way? Or are we covering up something which will one day come out to our shame before God and His holy angels? There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known (Matt. 10:26). Do we hate unkind suspicions, whisperings, backbitings, all unlove? ... Do we hate all weakening things, or are we sliding along in an easy kind of tolerance that is far removed from the “hate” of such verses as this? Do we hate laziness and slackness and all kinds of selfishness? See that you love all that God loves, but see that you hate all that He hates. If we don't know how to hate, we don't know how to love.”
The question that came to me that pierced my heart like sword was this: Do I truly hate the things which marred my Lord?
Do I hate the pride that sneaks into my heart when I least expect it? Do I hate the bitterness I feel toward people that have hurt me? Do I hate all forms of gossip, all the words I've said in anger, the irreverence and carelessness that causes me to put other things before the Lord?
I truly want to loathe every form of sin that was laid upon my Jesus. To hate it just as much as I love Him. To realize that pride is as ugly as murder. Unforgiveness is as ugly as drunkenness or sexual sin or lust. Little white lies and a gossiping tongue put Him on that cross just as much as idolatry and adultery did. I want to hate ALL sin, no matter what form it takes. To hate it enough to run from it with every fiber of my being, refusing to flirt with it even for a moment. To not allow its ugliness to sear and mar my heart, desensitizing me to its darkness.
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9. The more I cling to Jesus, the more I hate the things that hurt Him. So even now I'm clinging to my Lord for dear life, hating every scar I’ve inflicted upon Him, and seeing nothing but love in His eyes.
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