Christ's Comfort, Our Healing

In spite of everything our pastors tell us, and in spite of everything the Scriptures say, we Christians sure do have a hard time believing that Jesus actually wants to forgive us and make us whole, don’t we? 

I think this feeling becomes most pronounced when we’ve just committed yet another sin: we flew off the handle and spoke harshly to our spouse; we told another lie in order to get ourselves out of some form of trouble; we opened that tab on our internet browser and looked at things we’d be ashamed to let anyone else see. We feel disgusted with ourselves, and we think, “Surely Jesus must feel the same way about me.” 

Now, of course, the problem is that sin is actually worse than many of us think. Indeed, God does hate sin; he abhors wickedness and despises injustice. But God loves his people, and he lavishes his children with an everlasting love. So what does this mean for the Christian who continues to wage an intense war with their sins? If God really is completely holy and he really does hate sin, then how can we approach him after we’ve once again fallen short of his glory? Yet if God really has chosen us and really has set his everlasting love upon us, then how can we not seek to draw near to him and desire to be with him? 

A Body in Pain

Perhaps it would be helpful to think about this complex issue in these terms: what do you want to do when your body is in discomfort or pain? Let’s say you’ve broken your arm, or you’ve fallen and scraped your knee to pieces. What is (hopefully) the first thing you seek to do when that searing feeling courses through your body? 

I can imagine that, for most of us, the first thing we do is try to repair the wound and soothe the pain. We make our way to the hospital to have our arm set and put in a sling; we bandage our cut and anoint it with Neosporin; we want our bodies to be “whole” again, to function as they did before we were hurt. If our arm or leg suddenly popped off of our bodies and said, “I’m so sorry I’ve failed you and caused you pain, I’ll just leave and not be a bother to you anymore,” we would be shocked and appalled, would we not? Such a ridiculous event would make things even worse!

Christ’s Comfort, Our Healing

This fanciful illustration may seem utterly preposterous to us, but it is actually nearer to the tragic truth than we might think. The apostle Paul went to great pains to tell us that, as Christians, we are now members of Christ’s body, and he is our head; we each function within the church as arms and legs (and eyes and ears and everything else) function in a body; we have unique roles to play, and we each contribute something to the overall life of the body (1 Corinthians 12-14). 

So then, when we sin, we are in effect “wounding” the body of Christ. We have caused pain not only to ourselves, but to the other members. What happens to one part of the body changes things for every other part of the body. If one arm is broken, then the other arm will probably need to pick up the slack in some sense; if the leg is so hurt that it can’t bear its normal weight, then adjustments will have to be made; and so on and so forth.

Then, typically, we feel so horrified by what we’ve done and the pain that we’ve caused -- not only to one another, but to Christ himself! -- that our default response is to, in one way or another, try to “detach” ourselves from the body and get as far away as possible from Jesus, our Head. 

But this is no less ludicrous than if one of our body parts decided to pop itself off our bodies because it had become wounded. We are comforted when we are able to heal our bodies; we would be disturbed beyond belief if our bodies “self-destructed” by literally falling apart every time we were hurt. 

The implication of being part of Christ’s body, then, is that in some sense he is comforted when we go to him for healing -- because his own body is being restored! In other words, to run to Jesus and willingly confess our sins to him and freely receive his forgiveness is the best thing we can do, not only for ourselves, but for everyone else who is part of Christ’s body -- including Christ. 

So yes, the wound of our sin may indeed be painful -- and even grievous and deep. But if we are members of Christ’s body, we need not fear to go to him for grace and comfort in time of need -- for he himself shall be glad to see his body healed, to see his children walk in forgiveness.