Sweet Injuries: Holy Week Monday

6 hours ago
4 min read

Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run, He gave the blind their sight.

Sweet injuries! Yet they at these themselves displease,

And ‘gainst Him rise.

What has Jesus done to people that they turn against Him and hate Him so? What wrongs has He done to them, to have them raging mad against Him? What has Jesus ever done to bring about such deep spite against Him that they would choose to free a murderer over Him? How has He injured them as individuals, as families, as a city, or as a nation on the whole? All He did to them was heal people. He gave hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, mobility to the lame, deliverance from demonic spirits, life to the dead and the rich promises of the Gospel to the poor.

These will have to be the injuries, the sweet injuries which Jesus inflicted on the people, His own people. The miracles He did for them all, in giving better lives to people, are what must displease them then. These must be the injuries, the offences, at which they displease themselves and rise up against Jesus.

Lord Jesus, if love is my song unknown, then I here confess, with deep sadness that I too have risen up against You for my own personal sweet injuries, since all You have ever done for me is good and to my good. Yet, I am so easily prone to choose the wicked, evil world of darkness over You, my Light and Salvation. Forgive me Jesus, pierce and remove my wicked heart, and lead me to crucify all of me that I may know resurrection with You. Amen!

Will you, like me, seek constant daily help from the Holy Spirit, to humble ourselves and be humbled, as we are given grace to clearly see more and more of who we are in Jesus’ eyes? No longer do we want to live lives deceived, as we hold ourselves as okay by works, according to our acceptable, pseudo, luke-warm Christian living. If this is for you and about you, as I know beyond any doubt it is for me, let us then, Keep the course!

Sweet injuries! Yet they at these themselves displease, And ‘gainst Him rise.

At these! Displeased at these good works, not evil works, mind you, I rise and stand against my Jesus. I cast my voice for the one, Barabbas, known as a life-taker, and not for the One, Jesus, unknown as a Life-giver. Do I know You Jesus? Do I really know who You are to me and to the whole world? Honestly, what have You done to me Lord, that causes such rage and spite against You?

My mind goes to an incident which occurred by a set of traffic lights. The light was on red, causing a cue of waiting vehicles. Walking from car to car begging, was a young man who, after receiving nothing from us and from other waiting vehicles, suddenly became belligerent. He exploded with rage and spite, which had us totally convinced that he was carrying some demon in him. He cursed and swore and threatened to chop up people’s little children. Even as the light turned green and we hastily moved on, he continued with his hate words. How did we injure him? How did we hurt him? What did we do to bring him to become so full of rage and spite towards us?

What did I do really? I didn’t do him anything, I said to myself, but then I was made to see it plainly. The problem was not in what I did, but in what I failed to do. I failed to give him exactly what he asked for. He wanted money to buy the very evil thing that turned him into the demon-possessed person he was, and which was keeping him trapped as its prisoner and slave. Sweet injury! At this good of mine, in not appeasing the evil demon in him, this sad, sin-riddled life, rose up against me.

Is this the picture of me before Jesus? Just as His love is unknown to me, in terms of how utterly deep, wonderful and lovely His Love is, is this the case with my hatred towards Him? Is my hatred unknown to me about Him? Am I no different from that demon-possessed, sin-possessed life I spoke about?

When that young man first came to the stationary car, he was most soft and polite in asking for money. When he was told that there was none to be given, he simply moved on to the other cars. Obviously, he was not receiving the money he wanted and what a change in this man was evidenced. Is this any different from the masses who were praising Jesus, loving Him as Lord and King, and giving glory, laud and honour to Him, in one moment, and in the next, what a totally drastic change! Listen! They were all spewing out nothing but spite and rage at Jesus. They were all sin-possessed enemies of Jesus.

How on earth can this be me? This is not me and never can be, I say to myself, but I am made to see a depth of truth in me that the very deceiver has kept me away from. He has been successfully and diligently guarding me from ever coming to this truth and so I have been living without the truth about myself and Jesus. This means that repentance was locked and blocked from me.