3 places Jesus bled -- 3 places I am healed

As we observe Holy Week this year, we have come to Thursday night.  It was tonight that Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples for the last time and Communion for the first time.  It was tonight that He prayed fervently in the garden, was betrayed, arrested, tried in a mock trial, beaten, mocked, scourged, and  began His journey from Jerusalem to Golgotha.  Especially now, but always we need to be thinking about the events of this night and the next day.  A great resource for every Christian is Max Lucado's Six Hours One Friday: Living in the Power of the Cross.  Today, I want us to think specifically about the three places Jesus bled from the time of His arrest, until His death on the cross.

1. Jesus bled when He prayed in the garden. The gospels tell us that when Jesus prayed in the garden after the last supper, He prayed so fervently that His sweat became as blood.  (Luke 22:44) I believe this is our provision for emotional healing.  He is our Jehovah-Shalom, our peace and this is possible because He shed His blood while He prayed.
2. Jesus bled when He was scourged in Pilate's judgement hall.  We are familiar with the story.  Pilate did not think Jesus was deserving of death, so he thought he could appease the crowd by having Him whipped.  History tells us that when a Roman prisoner was whipped, he would be tied over a post, and two soldiers (one on either side) would whip the prisoner.  Isaiah knew this would happen to our Lord years before He was ever even born and said that it was by those stripes that we are healed.  This is the provision for our physical healing.
3. Jesus bled when He was crucified on the cross.  And this covers the most important healing of all, our spiritual healing or salvation.  The Word of God has been clear since the Garden of Eden, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.  As Andre Crouch sang for so many years, 'The Blood will never loose it's power'.  We are saved because of the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary.  

God is concerned about our whole being: our spirit, our emotions, and even our bodies.  And since He is concerned about all of us, He provided healing for ALL of us, not just part of us.