It was stupid. I must have thought I was a 20-something. I was in the foyer of my house balancing myself on one foot trying to put on my shoe. That didn’t work so well. I must have lost my balance and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the floor looking up at the ceiling! The first thing I did while lying on the floor was to check to see if I’d broken any bones. Fortunately I hadn’t but I did have a huge swelling developing on my right elbow and my ribs and tailbone hurt like crazy. It has now been over a month since that fall. My ribs, which were cracked but not broken, are slowly healing. My tailbone hurts less and my elbow has shrunk back to almost normal size. I found out what most of you already know; it takes longer to heal as you get older. My body simply doesn’t have the resiliency it once had when I was younger. Healing from a fall is painful and takes time.
Can I draw a spiritual comparison? In what theologians call “The Fall,” the sin of Adam and Eve caused them excruciating pain. Consider that after they disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they immediately knew that they were naked. The emotional pain of fear, guilt, and shame set in and so they made loin coverings for themselves. Then they experienced relational pain for they heard the Lord God walking in the Garden of Eden so they hid themselves from Him (Genesis 3:8). To compound their relational pain, they played the blame game with each blaming someone else because they couldn’t accept responsibility for their sinful disobedience. Then, besides experiencing emotional and relational pain, Adam and Eve experienced physical pain. Both were punished by God. Eve was punished with multiplied pain in childbirth and the rule of her husband over her. Adam was punished with a cursed earth requiring toil and sweat to eke out food. Finally, the sin of Adam and Eve was punished with death and separation from God (Genesis 3:19, 23, 24).
The Second Adam healed The Fall. Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, never sinned. Unlike the first Adam who intentionally and willingly disobeyed God’s one prohibition, Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly. In the ultimate injustice, Jesus was crucified and suffered excruciating pain, not for His sins but for ours. The pain of crucifixion cannot be adequately described in an article such as this. Medical doctors have tried to explain what physically happens to the body when it is crucified. It is pain beyond comprehension.
Out of His great love for us, Jesus took the pain and paid the price by dying on the cross for our sins so that we might be healed from The Fall. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus laid down His life for us, His friends, that we might be healed from The Fall. Praise God! Thank you Jesus!
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
Irv