What is an “Incurable Wound?” It is some loss or betrayal so profound it can never be repaired. The damage goes to the core of the self and has so profoundly changed one’s life that there is no going back from its impact or influence.
How do we then come to terms with such a wound? One word. Jesus. But not in the way, Jesus is commonly understood.
New from the Old
This is not the Jesus that merely pats you up to hide the wound. This is the (real) Jesus that died to purchase your lost and irredeemable life. He wants to create something entirely new from out of the old. His is the road of death and resurrection. We discover life through His death.
Does this mean that our wound disappears? Not in this life. Instead, it becomes the soil from which a new life will spring.
This means that right smack dab in the center of your pain, Jesus brings forth something so grand and amazing that you will rise above the old. Indeed, you may even come to cherish it – as the ground for something marvelous, redemptive, a blessing. It is as if the old tree has died yet remains but out of its core deadness springs forth something new and transcendent, something beautiful. This new life constantly overcomes the old, yet the old remains.
A New and Better Beginning
In Jesus, all things old must die so that new life can be born. The new life is of a substance profoundly greater than the old. The old is finite, weak, and temporary. The new life is imperishable and flawless. This is what happened on the cross. Jesus came as a finite man and carried away our sins, darkness, and sorrows. That life is eternal, and it is incorruptible. It is so beyond the old that the old becomes consumed by the new. “Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Cor. 15:54)
Thus Paul can say, “Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have been made new.” (2 Cor. 5:17). As the old saying goes, “you have nothing to lose but your chains. Jesus said that “except a seed fall into the ground and die, it remains by itself alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit. (Jn. 12:24)
He is the redeemer of the poor, the brokenhearted, and those who have no hope. Whatever we lose in Him is never an actual loss for us but salvation from an old and dying life.
Rejoice, oh Barren One
From its beginning, the Bible is the story of man’s errors, failures, and sufferings. But the heart of its message is of God’s redemptive mercy and grace. He responded with grace and redemption to those who cried to Him for mercy and salvation from their poverty. We see, in the founding father’s families, tales of woe. Sarah’s barrenness and God answering her with a gift that brought laughter to her heart. Jacob’s treachery toward his brother resulted in betrayal, disappointment, and loss being returned to his head. Yet He met God. He wrestled with the Angel and won the blessing. He won God’s paradoxical blessing, a weakness in his hip, so he would cling to his God. And of all his losses, he ultimately gained them back again – Joseph and Benjamin, his beloved sons of the women he loved and lost while young.
So many stories, the sufferings of man, a trail of tears. Yet He had a plan: a promise to bless all the nations of the earth. How would He do this? A man, His beloved Son. He also took that loss, sorrow, and suffering all mankind has born since Adam’s fall. Yes, He took it upon Himself. This was no accident in history. God had placed messenger and His message to the world in a people of promise. That promise was made, again and again, echoing through the ages. Though many deny it, it is plain for anyone with a willing heart to believe.
Abraham’s near sacrifice of his own son of the promise at God’s request. The testimonies of David and the prophets about what was to come, a messiah that would save the world. That Messiah who was promised had one chance to appear in history without breaking the testimony of Scripture. Daniel foretold of that day in which He would come. Had He not come and done things no man has ever done, God’s word would have failed. Instead, the hope of ages came and died and rose again. To this day, His having come and died to transform a group of fishermen into mighty men that also transformed the whole world stands as an event so central that world history sets its calendars by it.
We could go on and on. The endless ways in which He had revealed Himself to those that would hear; I could never write enough if I wrote of it all my days. He is all He has told us He is. I Am Who I Am. Yahweh, and there is none like Him!
Therefore, rejoice, oh barren one! For He has taken away your shame and your sorrow. As it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.” (Gal. 4:27, ESV; Is. 54:1)
Your incurable wound is no longer your master but has become the servant of the Most High, who loves you with perfect love. Even if you should momentarily lose heart in fear, and flee in the face of the enemy, remember that His redemption covers all our failures. He is kind and filled with grace and mercy. He always does more than expected for those who refuse to be dissuaded from believing and hoping in His grace and mercy.
You will not be Disappointed
He has done great things! In Him alone, there is fullness of joy. Even joy unspeakable and full of glory! (1 Pet. 1:8) Place all your hope in Him because He will not disappoint, “He who believes in Him will not be disappointed. (Rom. 10:11). He is the Cornerstone of all things.
Is the wound so great that your soul is destroyed? Do not despair. He is the rescue of the ruined. He is the one who raises even the dead. Put your hope in Him. He will bring forth your light like the new day, and you will dance for joy on the hilltops! You will remember your sorrow no more.
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