When David wrote what we know of today as Psalm chapter fifty-one, it was a verbalization of the deepest cries of his heart in repentance for the sins that he had committed in violating an innocent neighbor and then plotting her husband’s murder in his attempt to cover up the whole dirty mess. However, there is one shockingly amazing line in that prayer that leaves most Bible readers scratching their heads, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” (verse 4) How is it possible that David could have exploited Bathsheba and had Uriah massacred without feeling that he had sinned against them?
It is likely that we would never be able to find the answer short of two powerful clues in the New Testament. The first clue is nestled in Jesus’ parable of the dividing of the sheep and goats in Matthew chapter twenty-five, verses thirty-one through forty-six. We will certainly remember the criteria that the King used to sort the nations that would inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world from the cursed ones who were to be cast into the everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was whether they had given Him meat or drink when they saw Him hungry and thirsty, taken him in when He was a stranger, clothed Him when they saw Him naked, or visited Him when He was in prison. Of course, both groups responded that they didn’t even realize that they had ever seen Jesus hungry, thirsty, as a stranger, naked, or in prison. His response to both factions was that by either blessing or ignoring the least of His brethren, it was the same as acting directly for or against Him. The second clue is couched in the account of Saul of Tarsus’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4, 22:7, 26:14) when the Lord confronted Saul with the question, “Why are you persecuting Me?” This is an astonishing question in that Saul didn’t appear even on the scene until after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. (I Corinthians 15:8) How, then, is it possible that Jesus could even dare to accuse him of persecuting Him? The obvious answer is that every act of violence that Saul had perpetrated against any member of the Body of Christ was a crime against Jesus Himself.
I’d like to apply this revelation to four areas where it has personally affected my life. To set the stage for the first of these dimensions, I must take you with me to the nation of Nepal on a scorching hot summer day. It was there that I experienced one of those momentary encounters that so dramatically impact your consciousness that you never shake them. Just like Gautama’s encounters with an old man, a sick man, a dead corpse, and an ascetic radically transformed him from the overly-protected child of the upper class to a seeker of truth, this one chance glimpse at life in the raw impacted me to the very core of my being. As my team made our way through a road construction site, we passed the sad sight of the crews of women and children working in the hot sun chipping away at huge boulders with hammers to make the gravel necessary to pave the new highway and the men sweltering in the heat of the asphalt as they poured the goo from fifty-five gallon drums that they had heated over open fires into the wooden forms that defined the parameters of the new roadway. However, there was one particular woman whose fate drew me into the human tragedy that lay before me like no other. It was one solitary woman, so emaciated that it was evident that she barely earned enough to keep herself alive. She was dressed in rags and a tattered pair of sandals and held a tin can in one hand and a filthy rag in the other. With a little splash of water and a swipe of the cloth, she fulfilled her life’s destiny of cleaning off bits of gravel that stuck on the giant steamroller as it made its way across the freshly laid tar and gravel. I’m certain that the newly-poured asphalt must have exceeded a hundred degrees, yet she stood right in the middle of it fulfilling her assigned task of making sure that the roller was wiped clean before it made its next cycle. It was just a fleeting glimpse, but that encounter with this poor woman in a living hell will forever haunt me as a living symbol of the diabolic inequity in our world. But what was more powerful than the literal vision before my physical eyes was the spiritual vision that flashed into my spirit at the same moment. The scene was the grandeur of the heavenly throne room — with the very throne of God of precious stones irradiated by a rainbow shining like an emerald, the shouts of praise emanating from the twenty-four heavenly elders in white robes and golden crowns, accompanied by lightning and thunders and the adoration of the four indescribable living creatures, the radiance of the divine glory reflecting from the crystal sea, the diamond walls, and golden streets. An uneasy fell upon this incredible display of opulent splendor, as the One on the throne lifted one leg and placed his foot on the floor followed by picking up the second foot and extending His other foot to the floor so that He has stepped down from His throne. Too shocked to breath, all the residents of heaven stood in awe as they heard the Son of God’s announcement that He had decided to abdicate His position in heaven to sojourn on earth in order to deal with the evil that had consumed the planet. He had determined that He would make Himself of no reputation, take upon Himself the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death — even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:7-8) He was to become poor for the sake of the human race so that they could become rich through His poverty. (II Corinthians 8:9) Yet, inequity and injustice still exist in the world. Somewhere along the line, His sacrifice had been stolen away from this poor Nepali woman. His voluntary poverty had not released her from her enslavement in poverty. A crime had been committed — yes, against this poor, enslaved woman — but most significantly against Jesus Christ Himself.
The second area in which my reactions have been altered by this revelation is in the matter of healing. But in order to set the stage for this life lesson, I first need to ask you to remember your experience in the theater when you first watched the flogging scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Excruciating, wasn’t it? I literally had to close my eyes during most of the presentation. I will always remember the point when the centurion made a hand gesture that I assumed was the “enough” signal — only to discover that it was the signal to turn the victim over and flog His chest as well as His back! I could barely take any more at that point!! After having witnessed what an awful price Jesus paid for our healing by taking those stripes on His body (Isaiah 53:5, I Peter 2:24), I now have a new vantage point from which to understand sickness, disease, and injury. Every physical malady that ever invades the body of a believer is in violation of the price that Jesus paid at the whipping post. No longer do I feel sympathy for the sick or injured person; now, I am riled up with righteous indignation over the fact that Jesus paid such a price so that each of us can live in divine health — and somewhere along the line that ransom has been stolen. Yes, I respond in anger over sickness, disease, and injury — rage at the devil because he has robbed the suffering person of the benefit that Jesus paid such a price for, infuriation against every preacher or teacher who has deceived the sufferer into believing that sicknesses and disabilities are sometimes permitted and even inflicted by God to make the sufferer a better person or to teach him a lesson of some sort, and ire toward the victim for devaluing the price that Jesus paid for his healing by simply neglecting to cash it in. To me, sickness, disease, injury, disability, or disfigurement of any kind is actually not so much an attack upon the individual suffering the pain; rather, it is a direct affront and a “slap in the face” to Jesus. I see it as a diabolical mocking of the terrible price He paid for our healing and health — literally a sin against God.
The third area in which my perspective has been altered by this revelation is in regard to sin. The stripes were only the “tip of the iceberg” for Jesus on that first Good Friday. After being paraded in public humiliation and disdain up Golgotha’s hill, the Savior was stretched out on the splintery wooden beam as nails were driven through His hands and feet. Next, the cross was lifted into place and dropped with a jolting thud into the pre-dug hole, ripping the flesh around the nail heads from the impact. Then for three torturous hours, He hung between heaven and earth suffering unbearable exposure, dehydration, and physical agony along with the spiritual anguish of taking upon Himself the sins of the whole world. With this revelation in mind, I see sin in a totally new light. Now, I am no longer angered by people’s actions because of the injury they cause me or others through their wrongful actions; rather, I see each sinful act as an affront to the unspeakable price that Jesus paid on the cross to free us from sin. (II Corinthians 5:21) Because of the price that Jesus paid on that cross, we should never have to commit another sinful act; however, we seem to persist in our rebellion through lying, cheating, stealing, living in immorality, and every other form of unrighteousness. Yes, these acts hurt others — and even ourselves — in the process; however, the number one subject of insult and injury is the One who made the ultimate sacrifice to free us from the bondage of such deception and rebellion. Every time we insist upon committing sinful acts, we join in on the sin of the self-righteous Pharisees as they accuse Him of blasphemy and treason, of the Roman soldiers as they spit in His face, of the angry mob as they cry out “Crucify Him,” and of the cynical thief as he demands that if He is the Son of God that He should come down from the cross. We try to crucify Him afresh and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:6) Our sins are not against anyone other than Jesus Christ Himself.
The forth arena effected by this insight has to do with the defeated lives that most Christians live. We simply accept defeat, lack, and abuse as part of the “cross we have to bear,” ignoring the fact that Jesus Christ arose from the grave with authority over every aspect of life and every circumstance or situation that we could ever face. (Matthew 28:18) Any time that a believer allows himself to fall prey to defeat, discouragement, destruction, or depression, he has negated the power of the resurrection — and committed a crime against the One who went through death and a sojourn in hell in order to regain dominion in the resurrection.
[I] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:16-23)