When I follow the Christ through the last week of His life, it was an uphill climb for Him all the way to Calvary. He was so weak in the end he needed help to carry the cross to the place of crucifixion. In the midst of this week, He did some amazing things even though the devil and the world were trying to kill Him. Our sicknesses are petty in comparison to the great disease of our sin Jesus took upon himself. I am taking ciprofloxacin and prednisone for medicine for my body. The only medicine for our sickness of soul-spirit is Jesus Christ.
When a person is sick they often become self-absorbed. Sometimes they can become very demanding thinking they deserve to be waited on by others. But Jesus tended to the needs of others right up to the end even though he was wracked with excruciating pain. He made sure John took care of Mary his mother as he was hanging from the cross. Even the Roman Centurion in charge of the crucifixion was being tended to.
Mark 15:37-39 “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”
Of all the sicknesses of the Jewish State, Rome was the most hated enemy of all by the people. And yet, in their blindness the Hebrews could not see the occupation was not because Rome was the evil empire, but because they had given over heartfelt faith in the God of Israel. Jesus came unto his own and his own received Him not because they were full of the sickness of sin.
Our great physician took our most vile illness upon Himself. He did not provide an antibody, but gave His own body and blood as the only medicine to cure our dying hearts. His sickness was not His own, but ours for which he paid the highest price for a medicine which could not be purchased with money, or conjured by the chemist. Many people are wrestling with physical illness in our church right now. But there is not a soul that needs to be ill if they would repent and trust Jesus as their Savior. May we who claim Christ that are ill still try to look outside the box of our illness and think of others even as Jesus did. In this we may find a greater medicine than antibiotics.
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor John Schofield
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