I’ve never read this text before: 24… His wounds became your healing.  Suddenly, the saying “one man’s gain is another man’s loss” has a completely different meaning for me. 

Our wounds, the holes that sin has made in us, the wounds that our wrongdoings have torn in our lives, are healed. Not healed by our body which is designed to put on scabs and tissue to repair itself. No, it’s Jesus’ wounds that restore our wounds. 

Jesus himself had no wounds from sin. Remember, He was sinless and precisely because of that He was the only suitable candidate to pay for humanity’s sin. 

He came to earth to be wounded by the curses of people who did not recognise Him as the Saviour. He was wounded by whips that ripped pieces of flesh from His body. Wounds were cut where the nails went through His wrists and ankles and where a spear was thrust into His side. The biggest wound surely was where the life was strangled from His body. 

These wounds, this death of Jesus on the cross and, thanks to the Father, the resurrection a few days later, heal the wounds of us who have accepted Him as our Saviour. Where there were holes in us, there now are not scabs trying to repair, but new skin. A new life.  

Where we should have to starve and die as deserved punishment for all the sins we accumulate, we are invited to sit at the Almighty God’s dinner table forever and eat the bread of life. 

I sit quietly for a moment, trying to understand what Jesus has done for me. In a way, the great truths are too much for my mind to take in. Why would a great God let His Son hang on the cross for a sinful person like me? 

Why would Jesus die so that I could eat the bread of life? And then slowly it dawns on me. It’s all because God loves me. His love for me is so great that He will do everything to put the bread of life on my table. 

Wow! This is life-changing! 

When I get up from the proverbial bread table, I don’t want to go back to my old way of life. I don’t want to allow sin to wound my body again. 

I want to fulfil the wish of the one who died so that my wounds could heal: 24… You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. 

Yes! I want to make sure that the wrong things are no longer a reality in my life.  My deepest wish is to live in a way that pleases God. I want to arrange my life to also give bread to the hungry people I encounter.   

I just wonder if I’m also willing for my loss to be someone else’s gain… 

Scripture
1 Peter 2:21-25 

Reflection
What still causes you wounds?
Where should you live differently?
Are you willing to give bread to others? 

Prayer
Jesus, thank you for being willing to die so that my wounds from sin could heal. Help me to heal others’ wounds too, whatever it costs. Amen.