No Broken Bones

What is the worst pain that you have ever experienced?Childbirth? A kidney stone? Acute physical trauma? While pain is a subjective experience, as a retired nurse educator I always taught that pain is what the patient says it is! I have observed people, particularly in the 1970’s, who were suffering from severe burns and their pain was excruciating. In the 1970’s medical professionals were afraid to give strong medication to these individuals “in case they would become addicted to it.” Now, with newer methods and newer medications, pain control has improved for burn patients.1 Which is more painful, a fracture or a sprain?“While immobilized, fracture pain is often described as ‘achy,’ while sprains may cause more of a ‘throbbing’ pain. However, one is not necessarily more painful than the other when it comes to sprains and fractures. It depends on the extent of the injury. In fact, wrist sprains and fractures can both be associated with a wide variety of pain levels.” 2 Emotional pain can be very painful; grief, loss, abuse...Ricia Fleming is a multifaceted author and healer with a Ph.D. in English Literature. She is a triple-licensed professional, mental health counselor, certified social worker and massage therapist. In her book “No Sticks or Stones, No Broken Bones” she discusses naCCT: Non-physically-assaultive, attachment-based Chronic Covert Trauma and cPTSD: Complex PTSD. She tells down-to-earth trauma survivor stories and discusses healing methods for those who did not have physical trauma. The stories are heart-breaking. If you are a victim of abuse, it is important to share your pain with a professional counselor. Also, there is a pamphlet available from Moments With The Book, titled “Rescue Me,” which is written by an abuse survivor. If you are suicidal, I have written a pamphlet titled “Help for Hurting Hearts” available from the same site. Both can be viewed online. If you are dealing with loss or grief, the Center for Loss & Life Transition has some excellent resources. One of the Worst Types of PainOne of the worst types of pain in history was crucifixion: “Ancient Rome was a brutal place, and justice was class-based. If, for example, you were a slave on trial, only evidence obtained under torture could be accepted by the court, and the torture was often undertaken in court too! Crucifixion was normally reserved for slaves and humiliores (second-class Roman citizens), though there were cases of upper-class Romans being crucified. The [person] typically would be stripped naked, then scourged and beaten and then forced to carry a large wooden cross to his place of execution. They would next be nailed on to the cross through the hands and feet. Soldiers or bystanders would stab, beat, or humiliate the victim.”3 But there was one man who was not a slave (yet He was sold for the price of a slave – 30 pieces of silver): “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you? And they weighed out for and paid to him [Judas Iscariot] thirty pieces of silver [about twenty-one dollars and sixty cents].” 4 He [the crucified one] was not a second-class citizen, and He was not an upper-class citizen: “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” 5 Who could that possibly be?He was rich yet He became poor and was crucified for someone else? It was the Son of God! Jesus Christ! He was with His Father in Heaven; He had no beginning and enjoyed all the riches of heaven and was worshiped by angels! Yet He chose to take on a body so that He could be crucified for ME! And YOU! “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 6 This means that He took the penalty for my sins so that: I will never be punished for them and I am healed from the terrible disease of sin. I am “clothed” in His righteousness, and sin will no longer be the pattern of my life. It doesn't make us sinless, but the Holy Spirit then lives within us and helps us not to sin. Why would He do this?He was “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 7 BUT not one of His bones was broken, though He suffered more than any man! “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” 8 But His greatest suffering was during those three dark, lonely hours on a Friday afternoon. “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?').” 9 Why was there darkness and why did God forsake Him? He was bearing the punishment for OUR sin! That is why He suffered more than any man. He was forsaken so that WE would never be forsaken. God cannot look on sin, but the amazing thing is that Jesus was still able to communicate with His Heavenly Father! This is something we will never understand but, in two of the seven cries from the cross, Jesus communicated with His Heavenly Father. We read in Luke 23:34, “Jesus said, [about the people who were crucifying Him!] Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” What amazing love! If He could say that about cruel soldiers, surely He can and will forgive you. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Then, in Luke 23:46 (ESV) we read that “Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” He CHOSE the time of His death! A Finished WorkWe read in John 19:30 (ESV) “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” This means that the work He came to do (in dying for our sins) was finished! There is nothing for us to do except to trust in Him as our Savior and our hope of heaven. “If you declare with your mouth ‘Jesus as Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, NIV). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1, ESV). “For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV). How do we know that none of His bones were broken?In John 19:32-33 (ESV) we read, “The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” WHY? It is estimated that there are over 100 prophecies in the Old Testament that relate to Jesus, and He fulfilled them all! There are at least two that relate to “no broken bones.” One is found in Psalm 34:19-20 (ESV), “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” Jesus was the ONLY one who could be called righteous. Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one.” Also when God was giving Moses instructions regarding the Passover lamb, He said, “You shall not break any of its bones” (Exodus 12:46 ESV). In 1 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV) we read “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” If we continue in John 19, we read, “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They will look on Him whom they have pierced’” (John 19:34-37). Little did the soldier know that he was actually fulfilling a prophecy from Zechariah 12:10, “When they look on me, on him who they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.” I love to personalize Isaiah 53:5 and my prayer is that you will too: “He was wounded for [my] transgressions, He was bruised for [my] iniquities; The chastisement for [my] peace was upon Him, And by His stripes [I am]healed.” My prayer, also, is that you will receive freedom from pain, whether it is spiritual, emotional or physical, and find peace through believing in Jesus Christ as your Saviour. ~ J. Payne 1. Sedation and Pain Management in Burn Patients. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 2. Wrist Sprain vs. Wrist Fracture | Advanced Ortho and Spine 3. https://www.history.co.uk 4. Matthew 26:15, AMPC 5. 2 Corinthians 8:9, NKJV 6. 1 Peter 2:24, ESV 7. Galatians 2:20, ESV 8. 1 Peter 3:18, ESV 9. Mark 15:33-34, NIV