Imagine carrying a 50-kilo sack on your shoulders. It would have been impossible. But then a man of colossal size and gargantuan biceps takes the other end of the sack. The burden is eased, because the man, far stronger than you are, carries most of the weight.
Such is the case when Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We are not alone in carrying our burdens. Jesus is with us, carrying our burdens with us.
With his body beaten and bloodied and lacerated, with his face unrecognizable from the bruises and cuts and wounds, and with his hands and feet pulled and stretched and pierced, he cried. A cry that echoed throughout the land and shook the entire universe.
TETELESTAI.
The battle against pain and sickness and death and sin is over. It IS finished. All because “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
This means that—
Our sick bodies are now cured. From colds to pneumonia, joint pain to paralysis, mild stroke to aneurysm—any sickness and disease—is within the healing power of Jesus, regardless of what the doctor might have said. For our ultimate medicine is not made with masterfully-concocted chemicals, but with the excruciatingly-received cuts, lashes, and punctures of Jesus Christ.
Our broken hearts are now healed. Yes, even the wounds that lie beneath our skin, more agonizing than the sting of alcohol on a fatal gash: an investment worked hard for but went a-dwindling, a friend most trusted but went betraying, a daughter much expected but went expecting. These heartaches and pains, no matter how deep, will be swept away in Jesus’ loving embrace. For He Himself was a “man of sorrows,” familiar with our sufferings.
Our dead souls are now revived. Our hearts may be pumping blood, but the blood that courses through our veins is the blood of one who fell into sin… into death. The descendants of Adam, we are doomed. Dead. But we have a hope. We can be washed clean and made new. We can actually live for all eternity! For the very reason why Jesus Christ willingly shed His precious blood, the very reason why He willingly embraced the Cross and all its horrors, was us: His blood for our forgiveness, His death for our life.
Therefore, be it an ailment of the body, of the heart, of the soul, or all three, in the midst of our every pain and every anguish, we cry:
TETELESTAI!
