“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53: 3 - 6 (King James Version)
Jesus was not only beaten, tortured, rejected and crucified on a cross of horror and excruciating pain for us; He is still being rejected and abused today. Every time that people refuse to open their hearts and invite Him into their hearts to be their personal Saviour, He is being rejected. When we say cruel words to people and do hateful things to them, we are abusing Jesus.
He has told us that when we are kind and loving to people, we are kind and loving to Him and when we are hateful to people, we are being hateful to Him. We read in the Bible “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25: 40).
I’m reminded of an illustration that a pastor used in a sermon “A husband and wife were driving down a road and the wife said to her husband “Why aren’t we close anymore? We don’t sit close to each other like we used to do.” The husband replied “I haven’t moved.” Jesus hasn’t moved away from us but there are times when we move away from Him.
Yes, it hurts Him when we move away from Him and stop spending time with Him. It’s time that we stop hurting Him and start making Him happy. He deserves to be happy. He has done so much for us and He asks so little of us. May God forgive us for hurting His beloved Son. Have you moved away from Jesus? If so, ask Him to forgive you and run back into His waiting arms. He longs to fellowship with you. Please spend time with the One who loves you so much that He died for you.
Joanne Lowe
April 18, 2009
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