Why? Because he knew the hearts of men. He knew, far more clearly and completely than you or me could ever know, the anger and rejection that people bore toward him even when they didn’t explicitly express them. He would seem to be a candidate for inner healing, if anyone ever was.
Why, then, did Jesus turn out to be the healthiest man who ever lived? Why did Jesus never need inner healing when pain seems to have been all around him? The reason is that Jesus never reacted sinfully to what was done to him. He never withheld forgiveness. He was never bitter or resentful, he was not angry to a point of sinning. In other words he was free from sinful reactions, so he did not need to be healed from the consequences of those reactions. He forgave those who hurt him to an extent of doing it even from the cross.
This is a lesson to us. Given that we live in a period in which the world does not seem to mind hurting people, seeing their tears, and celebrating their frustrations, then we have to learn to imitate our Saviour. By doing so, we will discover that our freedom from hurts, at least as far as eternity is concerned has nothing to do with how we have been hurt, but how we react to those hurtings. In this period of Lent, let us pray that God may enable all those people in our countries, who are innocently undergoing painful situations in their lives, that by looking at the cross of Jesus they may find courage to move on with their lives, and to offer their suffering as sacrifice to God.
