Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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If you're a parent, you'll understand this. There are those times when you just wish you could trade places with your child because of the pain they're going through. Our 12-year-old son had been playing a pickup football game with some of his friends when a tackle caused him to break his arm. I mean, really break his arm. The fracture was so severe that his arm bone bulged out grotesquely, his hand was limp, and he was really, really hurting. The doctor met us in the emergency room and he went to work trying to reset this arm that was broken in several places. Our son was very tough, but it was obvious that he was in excruciating—I think almost unbearable—pain. He's pretty sure he doesn't ever want to do that again.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Pain of a Fracture."
Our son would be the first to tell you how much a fracture in your body hurts. That is pain that the Son of God understands all too well. He describes all of us who belong to Him as His "body" on earth. And when there's a break in His body, He feels the pain.
That's why He makes very clear how we're supposed to be treating each other in passages like our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 1. "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit."
Fractures in Christ's body hurt Him and they hurt us. We can avoid those painful breaks by living "worthy" as it says here; treating each other gently, humbly putting the other person's interests first, patiently bearing with and choosing to overlook slights and hassles and their shortcomings.
But maybe you're in the middle of a break in Christ's body right now. If there is anything you can do to help repair that fracture, please do whatever it takes. It is hurting your Savior. It's hurting you and the other people involved, and it's hurting the reputation of Jesus with anyone else who knows about it.
Someone has to have the Christ-like humility to say, "This has been broken long enough. I'm not going to let my pride keep me from doing something about this any longer." That may take a grace that is so counterintuitive for us but so instinctive for Jesus. It's called forgiving. You may say, "How can I forgive them after the way they've treated me?" You probably can't. So, you'll have to ask Jesus, the Great Forgiver, to pour His forgiveness into you. Then, as Colossians 3:13 says, you can "forgive as the Lord forgave you." You don't treat them the way they treated you. You treat them the way Jesus treated you: with unconditional love, with forgiving grace.
All of us who belong to Jesus really have only one enemy, and that's Satan. He loves it when we treat each other like the enemy and we shoot at a brother or sister ammunition that should only be aimed at our real enemy! Why would we form our firing squads in a circle and shoot each other? There've been way too many Christians wounded by "friendly fire" from their own.
You can start the healing of Christ's body with words like these: "I was wrong." "I miss you." "I forgive you." When you take that healing initiative, you are loving your Jesus enough to help relieve the pain that fracture is causing Him. His body was broken for us on the cross. Wasn't that enough? How can we break it again?