Needles and Swords

It is easy to look back on childhood and to pretend how innocent and simple and care free it was. To think about the stuffed animals, awesome dreams, and forts built out of blankets.

However, was it really as awesome as we make it out to be?

I remember many nights being frightened of walking around my house at night, afraid of what lurked around every corner. Yes it was great to be innocent to the world and have an imagination. But that same imagination played tricks with me when it came night time. There were, without a doubt, monsters lurking around every corner and behind every door. The Boogey Man had certainly chosen my house every night to come and scare me, literally, to death. I was just sure of it.

Or how bout those times when you fall down riding a bike or when you are learning how to swim or when you accidently burn your hand on the stove because you don't realize that it is hot.

Or the times when you realize that you can't live off a diet of candy. Otherwise, you have to pay regular visits to the dreaded dentist, who has a bunch of crazy machines that could kill you.

Yes being a child is great, I must admit. But at the same time, I was quite frightened and overwhelmed as a kid. There are so many new things that you are taking in and so many lessons you are learning that it is hard to fully comprehend how impressionable  we are at that time of our lives.

How vulnerable we are.

But without those tough lessons, we could never become adults. We would just stay innocent and naive to reality. We would never grow up. Never mature.

One of those defining moments was going to the doctor's to get my first shot. You don't really know what to expect as a kid when you hear the word "shot". But you just go along with it because your parents tell you that it is good for you and that you need it. Then all of a sudden:

The doctor pulls out the needle

The reality of what is about to happen hits your young mind as you see the sharp point on the end of the needle

The doctor asks you to life up your sleeve

And now here it comes. The needle inches closer to your skin;

Three...Two...One...Impact.

What a feeling it is. Yes, for some, it is a very terrifying experience and yes, for some, there is slight pain. But for the most part, it is not the pain that is the most frightening part. It is the fact that something as small as a needle can get under your skin without really your permission or wanting.

In that moment, you realize, as young as you are, what it feels like to be completely vulnerable to something.

And before you know it, the needle is out. A cool Ninja turtles band-aid is placed on the small hole. You grab a sucker from the secretary. And you are gone, having grown up a little that day.

But what if you took that experience away? Took away the shock of the needle? Took away the initial pinch of pain?

Took away that vulnerability?

Would you have grown up as much as you have today? What would have happened?

I can't honestly tell you. It may have altered absolutely nothing at all. But what if.... it changed everything?

I was reading my Bible the other day and came across a passage in Luke chapter 2.




This child marks both the failure and
      the recovery of many in Israel,
   A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
      the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
   But the rejection will force honesty,
      as God reveals who they really are

Mary and Joseph had come to present Jesus at the temple and Simeon was there to perform the rite of passage.

With these words, he spoke a prophetic word over the child.

 Isn't it interesting what he says about the sword? That Jesus, through his works and life, will be like a sword slicing through your body. In other translations, it says that it will reveal the deeper thoughts of people and even pierce the soul.

It will cause people to show who they really are. To be vulnerable.

I don't think that I have to point out the obvious correlation to this passage and the story of the child and the needle.

To show who we really are.

To experience sorrow.

To be completely vulnerable to something outside of your control.

If you take those things away... what do we become?

The child may stay exactly the same and never know the difference... except that now he is vulnerable to something he doesn't want to be vulnerable to.

Disease

Death

If you remove the sting from Jesus, what do you have left?

A man who was homeless.

A man who could be considered crazy for the things he thought of himself

A man who committed treason and was crucified for it.

A hippie probably at best.


But that isn't the truth is it?

The sting hasn't been removed.

You can still feel the place where the Bible or a pastor or a prayer or an event got underneath your skin to face the reality of who Jesus truly is:

The Son of God

The Judge over the world

The Propitiation for our sin

The Lord who has the authority to call us to obedience

The Savior who conquered the grave and rose again

We can't ignore the reality of this forever. After all, the puncture wound is still there on your soul and the nail wounds in his hands.

Simeon spoke that he would cause many to rise and fall.

Jesus is the most loved and hated person to walk this earth.

What do you say of him?

The scars demand an answer.