Anesthetised Sinners

At 4pm yesterday, I returned from the dentist, having had some teeth pulled. It was an unpleasant experience, though the anaesthetic worked a treat- I felt no pain at all as Mr Choudhury pulled and pressed, prodded and picked. As it wore off, the dull ache could be felt, but paracetamol did its best to hide it. The pain, like the blood, was still there, but it could not be felt. In Genesis 2:21-22, Adam the First received the first anaesthetic ahead of some major surgery:

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

I assume that God’s painkilling was even better than my dentist’s, though whether Adam awoke to some slight discomfort, we do not know. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, was also offered pain relief as He hung upon the cross. In Mark 15:23, He was passed- and refused- wine mingled with myrrh, a cheap concoction to dull the senses. The Lord’s ordeal would be felt in all its horrible fulness, and His mind would remain clear throughout. The cross itself is a theological anaesthetic. While the Law and the gospel alert me to the horrors of my condition, Christ’s body took the blow, endured the crushing, suffered the justice which should have been mine. I enter heaven unbruised and unbattered by God’s righteous wrath, for another stood my pain and anguish.

But 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. Isaiah 53:5

Image by Rafael Juárez from Pixabay