Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Christ's Broken Heart

Psalms 69:20

At Calvary, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves on either side of Jesus so that they would die sooner, but when they came to Jesus they found no reason to break His legs, for He was already dead. Instead, a soldier took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus, thrusting the sharp point between His ribs and into His heart. Out of this wound poured blood and water, as the sack of water surrounding His heart exploded onto the crowd. From the spear pierced side, Jesus formed His church and we are covered with His blood for our sins and His water of Words for our cleanliness.

The breaking of Jesus’ heart in the physical happened after He was dead, but the breaking of His heart in the spiritual occurred before He drew His last breath. No doubt it was heart-wrenching to see doubt at the tomb of Lazarus, but Jesus had grown to expect as much from mankind. It was awful to know that Peter would deny Him, but denial is part of humanity. It was torture to receive the kiss of betrayal from Judas in Gethsemane, but Jesus prophesied that it would happen. None of these things were the spiritual breaking of the heart of our Savior.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psalms 69:20). This Psalm could probably be called a Psalm of Reproach for the word appears six times, and each in characterizing the coming Savior and what He would face in death. In verse 7, He bears reproach for the sake of His Father’s name, showing us that Jesus was constantly mocked for claiming that He and the Father were one.

The worst reproach of all was not done at the hands of man, but at the hands of His Father. For three hours at Calvary, the sky went black and the earth began to tremble. In that time, God turned His back on Jesus as Jesus bore the sins and sickness of the world. Because God is holy and just and good, He cannot look upon sin, thus He abandoned Jesus there to suffer for us all. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; calling His Father “God” for the first and last time in His life. Feeling distant because of sin, He lost the spirit of son ship that so characterized His ministry.

Since Jesus paid for us at the cross, we are so blessed in that we get His benefits through the grace and favor of God. God turned His back on Jesus so that He will never turn His back on us. God abandoned Jesus to suffer so that He would never abandon His church to suffer. Jesus cried, “My God, my God”, so that you could always cry “Daddy, Daddy!”. You gained the spirit of son ship because Jesus surrendered it. You are never reproached because reproach broke His heart (Psalms 69:20).

There was no one found at Calvary to provide comfort to Jesus as He suffered for our sins, thus we have the everlasting Comforter to walk alongside of us every day. Since Jesus faced all of hell alone; we receive all of heaven and sit together with Him. How wonderful is our Jesus?

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