Pierced Heart, Pierced Hands

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Luke 13:34

“He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:3-6

“And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.” Luke 23:33

Before the cross, before Jesus’s hands and feet and side were pierced for our sin, His heart was pierced over our sin. This God-man who came to earth to save people from their sin, and all its attending sorrows and brokenness, suffered much of soul, observing the corrupted world He had helped create perfect. Over the course of His short public ministry, He witnessed fractured relationships, disease, hopelessness, paralysis, bigotry, fruitlessness. He endured suspicion, unbelief, denial, betrayal, derision, flogging, and reviling at the hands of those made in His image, and His heart was rent at sin’s fallout. (Genesis 1:26; Matthew 1:21; Mark 5:40; Luke 22:3-6,54-62; 1 Peter 2:23)

It was this compassionate, broken-hearted Jesus who died for you and me, who loved us to the end and laid down His life to give us back ours. (John 13:1; 15:13; 1 John 3:16)

“See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?”  ~Isaac Watts (1707)

How do we live in response to this love poured out for us? Do the things that break His heart in the world break ours? When we observe prejudicial favoritism or ostracism, do we go along, remain silent, or reach out and connect with the lonely, willing to suffer inconvenience or criticism in order to touch the “unclean”? What are we doing to help repair severed relationships and tarnished reputations, or do we just add to the ruin with gossip or haughty condemnation? How willing are we to speak up for Jesus, or defend one of His own? (Mark 1:40-41; 2:16; John 4:4-9)

Does unbelief and all its evil tentacles pierce our hearts with grief? Do we agonize in prayer for those who reject Jesus? Can we say with Paul, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers”? (Romans 9:1-3)

Lord, please pierce my heart unto repentance with sorrow for my sin that took You to calvary’s tree. Fill it with Your abounding love so I can love others to the extent You do. May I daily lay down my life in Christ-like abandon, to show forth Your glories and limitless worth. (Mark 12:30-32)