HE TOUCHES THE PAIN

Southern Gospel Saturdays are what I call them. As many do, I like to listen to music during personal prayer times. I listen to an eclectic plethora of songs across the days of the week. On Saturday, it’s Southern Gospel. Sometimes the algorithm throws in some Country Gospel music. I never heard of the singer, Iris DeMent. Or the song, “He Reached Down”. * But last Saturday, just as I was praying for some families enduring unbearable grief of an unimaginable tragedy, Iris, the writer, began to sing this song: Well, he reached down, he reached down He got right there on the ground He reached down, he reached down And he touched the pain Sometimes a song captures profound theology. This one does. He touched the pain. Two verses are a retelling of stories from the Gospel. From these the conclusion in the chorus is drawn, “He touched the pain.” The first story is about the man on the Jericho road who was ambushed by thieves who beat him within an inch of life, robbed him, stripped him, and left him to die. The priest and the Levite heard his groans, saw his suffering, and passed him by. Not the Samaritan. He climbed into the ditch with the bludgeoned and bleeding man. He dressed his wounds. He picked him up and carried him to an inn for convalescent care. “He reached down, he reached down, and he touched the pain.” The second: The scribes and the Pharisees, seeking to entrap Jesus, dragged a woman caught in adultery and threw her at Jesus' feet trying to get Him to condemn her or condemn Himself by not condemning her. He turned a spotlight on their own sin, “Whichever one of you that is without sin, let him cast the first stone to kill her.” Her accusers melted away. Only the weeping, guilty, shamed woman, bowed in the dust of the street, and Jesus remained. Then Jesus spoke, “I don’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” And with those words, “He reached down, He reached down and touched the pain.” Another story, not included in the song, is the story of the leprosy-eaten man who came to Jesus asking Him to cure him. A leper. An ostracized outcast. An untouchable. “Lord, if you would, you could heal me.” Jesus moved with compassion, reached for His hand, and—to the gasps of the crowd--touched the leper. Right on his leprosy. “He reached down, He reached down and touched the pain.” This is mindboggling. Jesus touched the leprosy. But think: If Jesus, moved with compassion of the man’s outward physical condition, reached out and touched the awful, putrid, outward effects of disease, will not He who can perceive thoughts, read minds, and see the inner turmoil, just as likely, if not more so, reach out and touch the inward suffering? Will He not touch the pain? That leper did not have leprosy because he was a bad person. Leprosy was not, as we can tell, a punishment for doing wrong. Some things come upon people for no fault of their own. Sickness. Tragic loss. Abandonment. Sexual abuse. Betrayal. But. as certainly has Jesus touched the leprosy on the skin of the leper, He will touch the pain in a person’s heart. Jesus touched the pain of the man beaten on the Jericho road knowing He Himself would be beaten at His crucifixion. Jesus touched the guilt and shame of the adulterous woman knowing He would bear her guilt and shame in the sufferings of the cross. Jesus touched the leprosy knowing the coming pain when the Lord would lay on Him the iniquity of us all. The Beaten touched the beaten. The Guilt-bearer touched the guilty. The Sin offering touched the leprosy that symbolizes sin and all its consequences. No one has suffered pain like Jesus did on the cross. When He touches our pain, it is Pain that is touching the pain. This is the great truth--Jesus is the Wounded Healer. The Wounded heals our wounds. The Sufferer takes our suffering. The Burdened unburdens us. The Hurt assuages our hurt. Pain touches our pain. Hanging suffering on the cross, “He reached down, He reached down and touched the pain. “ Pain touched pain. It is an enigma, but it is in Pain’s touching our pain, that comfort and healing take place. "By His stripes, we are healed." That’s what happens when Pain touches pain. Jesus reaches down and touches the pain. Yours. Whatever caused it. However deep. However long. However senseless. He reaches down, He reaches down, and touches the pain. --Pastor Clifford Hurst