It hurts me more than it hurts you...

When I was a kid, every time I got a spanking (and I'll be honest, they were frequent) my dad would always say, "this hurts me more than it hurts you." Now as a kid I always wanted to talk back and say, "well then why don't you let me do this to you..." but well, that would have just gotten me a few more licks. However, as I've matured I now understand that statement. The amount of love that my parents had for me made it difficult for them to put me through discomfort or pain. But I get it... and I learned from them. I don't know that I ever got a spanking for doing the same thing twice... well, maybe talking back...

Since it is a week until Easter the sermon in church today was on Crucifixion (John 19: 16-28). Our Sunday school lesson was not specifically on the Crucifixion and the death of Christ... but as we were reading through Psalm 103, this concept of It hurts me more than it hurts you really spoke to me from a different perspective. Here are few of the verses...

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Think about these two verses in bold... because I think they go together so much. The reason that God does not treat us as our sins deserves is because of the compassion He showed us through the forgiveness of our sins via the Crucifixion on the cross.

Now, let's consider the Crucifixion and the title of the blog tonight. I cannot fathom how true this statement was for God when He had to turn his back on Christ as he took on our sins on the cross. If it hurt my mom and daddy to spank me, can you imagine the pain God felt in that single moment. It makes me want to hug him, and comfort him... but the irony is that He had to hurt his Son so that I could be His daughter.

Think on that... it still blows my mind as I sit here and think about it.