No one wants to be bruised. Whatever event that brings it on is usually painful and it continues to be sore for quite some time. Bruises, we have all had them. Generally they are not very serious, resulting from some blunt trauma. However, in rare cases, they may indicate something even more serious. The Bible uses the bruise to teach important lessons about sin.
First, God does not accept anything that is bruised. “Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut; neither shall ye make any offering thereof in your land” (Lev. 22:24). An offering to God must be without blemish of any kind (Lev. 22:17-25). We should keep this in mind when we worship God. Are our prayers heart-felt and sincere, or are they merely an outward display (Matt. 6:5-15)? Is our worship in song from the heart or are the words we sing merely for our entertainment (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16)? During the preaching of the word, is our heart and mind directed toward the truths spoken or do our minds wander aimlessly about, thinking about the previous day’s activities, or about what we are going to be doing today, or something else? Is our heart really in our worship and service to God? If not, it is bruised and unacceptable to God. Offering to God that which is pure takes effort but, like David, we should only offer our best to God, not that which costs us nothing (II Sam. 24:24).
Second, Jesus was bruised for us. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” and “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:10,5). Though the Bible does not say specifically, I am certain that Jesus sustained very severe, literal bruises from the beatings He took from the Roman soldiers and the scourging from the temple guards. He literally was bruised for us. But, more than this, He Who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us that we might be acceptable to God (II Cor. 5:21). Because God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, the Father turned away from Him in that desperate hour (Matt. 27:45,46). How terribly alone and forsaken Jesus must have felt at that moment!
Third, this was all a part of God’s plan from the beginning. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). From the beginning the Father knew His Son would suffer on the cross for man’s sin (Rev. 13:8). The fact that the Lord knew that Jesus would have to go to the cross even before He created man shows the tremendous love that the Father has for us. The Lord must have thought us very much worth it to see the price that had to be paid and still go through with this plan. The blessings of salvation must be of far greater value than the possibility of eternal damnation (Rom. 8:18-39).
Finally, now that Jesus has suffered for us, made to be a propitiation for our sins (I John 2:2), He can heal our bruises and our bind up our wounds. Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). We are battered and bruised by sin, but Jesus can heal us and bind up our wounds (Luke 10:34). He took part of “flesh and blood” for this very reason, that He might destroy the power of the devil, deliver us from death, and succour them suffer (Heb. 2:14-18).
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
Eric L. Padgett