1. He sweat blood in a garden to reverse the curse that began in a garden. The first consequence Adam received after sinning was that the very relationship man had with the earth was cursed. The earth would no longer provide ease and favor, but toil and hardship. Adam would now have to sweat and toil to survive. But Jesus sweat His blood so we can have the ease and favor God originally intended. We are no longer cursed to sweat and toil to survive!
2. He bled from His face because His face was the face of God. They punched Him in the face and mocked Him to slander His identity. Because of the curse of sin, our identities and worth are slandered every day—and most often those lies come in the form of thoughts. It’s amazing to note that at the same time His face bled (His identity was attacked), they also beat Him in the head with a bamboo-like rod. Aren’t satan’s slanderous lies always in the form of thoughts in our minds? He took blows to His head to reverse the blows of slander we experience in our minds about who we are and who we are not. Instead of being bound by satan’s slanderous lies, we can walk in the truth—in God’s original identity for us: GLORIOUS image-bearers of God! We are BELOVED, ACCEPTED, ROYAL, GLORIOUS sons and daughters!
3. His beard was pulled out to shame and humiliate Him. Hair represents covering. His face was uncovered and bled to cover the shame that sin brings on us. Shame causes us to feel uncovered—to shrink and to hide from God and people. But God never intended or us to know shame. Jesus was uncovered to cover us. He bled from his beard to restore us to God’s original intent: loving, fulfilling relationships with both God and man not tainted by shame!
4. By His Stripes we were healed. The most insidious consequence of sin is sickness and disease. His original intent was for us to be immortal! But sin brought mortality and with mortality came death and DIS-EASE of every kind. Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. The word ‘healed’ in Isaiah 53 means: to be sewn together; mended; to be made HEALTHFUL. Jesus didn’t just bleed for sickness and disease, He was literally torn apart so we could be sewn back together. He took 39 lashes so you can be restored to His original plan: WHOLE, HEALED, and HEALTHFUL!
5. The crown of thorns caused Jesus to bleed from the crown of His head. In the garden and again in The Parable of the Sower, thorns represent poverty. He wore a crown of poverty to restore the abundance that sin stole from us. The provision in the Garden of Eden shows us His original intent: we were not made to live in poverty, but in “more than enough”. We serve a King who gives exceeding abundantly more than we could ask, think, or imagine, and He reversed the curse of poverty.
6. He bled from His hands and feet to reverse the curse on our destinies. Think about what sinful, fallen hands and feet lead a person to do. Under the curse, we are destined to go down evil paths with our feet and to do selfish, wicked works with our hands. But the blood that flowed from His hands and feet reversed that curse! We are now free to follow Him down “paths of righteousness”, to both DO and BE GOOD, and to use our hands to perform the “good works He prepared for us from before time began”! We are now FREE to fulfill the God-given, eternally fruitful destinies He intended us to live!
7. Both blood and water flowed from His side when Jesus was pierced. Doctors have verified that this only happens when a person dies from a ruptured heart. After all the bleeding Jesus did to reverse sin and all of its consequences in our lives, that isn’t what actually killed Him. Jesus died of a broken heart for all the brokenheartedness in the world. His heart was crushed because of how sin (ours and other peoples’) crushes us. He was broken for every kind of trauma, terror, deep grief, and sorrow of every sort. This act opened the door and reversed the curse of brokenness and it is why Isaiah 61 says our Savior came to “bind up the brokenhearted, healing all their wounds”.
The work of the Cross was complete. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit brilliantly thought of everything! When Jesus said, “It is finished,” the word finished in Greek is ‘tetelestai’. When used in business it meant “the debt is paid in its entirety.” When used in a military sense, it meant, “the victory is complete”! In Classical Greek times, this word was also used to depict a TURNING POINT when one period ended and a new period began!
He also chose to speak this word in two tenses which means He was really saying:
IT IS FINISHED AND IT WILL CONTINUE TO BE FINISHED!
We have the victory in this moment and for all of eternity, Friends!
Hallelujah for the Cross! Thank you, Father, for the Blood of Jesus!
extra ✺ ordinary 