Have you ever read about scientific experiments that test disassociation by pain? The basic gist of it is this: Take a rat and put it in a box with some cheese. The rat naturally goes for the cheese, anticipating an enjoyable meal. Its mind is wired to think of cheese as being a good thing.
Now change it up a bit. Whenever the rat approaches the cheese, right as it touches it, give the rat a healthy electric shock. Confused at first, it will back off and then try again. Another painful shock. And another. And another. Until the rat cowers in a corner, afraid and hurt even by the thought of the thing it once loved. The rat is now convinced that the cheese is no longer a good thing, but a source of pain.
I’m a rat sometimes. And, I suppose, so are you. Our “cheese”, though, are people we know and love: people whose company we used to enjoy. But a series of painful events has conditioned us to avoid those people. The pain is too great. The wounds they caused us too fresh, too deep. The emotional scars still too fresh on our hearts. The very thought of meeting them again is painful.
But see, there’s the thing: We think of those people as being painful. Their sin against us (or even our sin against them) has cut deep, so deep that we are divided from them. Onesimus is divided from Philemon, Philemon from Onesimus . . . and both from Christ.
That painful, sinful action that they committed against you? That’s a sin that Christ has paid in full. The agony of heart that you’ve been carrying, cowering in the corner, afraid and hurt at the very thought of the very person you once loved . . . you don’t need to carry it any more. You can let go of the bitterness, the anger, the pain, because Christ has paid for it all. You can receive back your friend as a fellow worker in Christ, rejoicing over the depth of grace God has given. Rejoicing over what God has done.
Or you can choose to live with pain.
“Painful”, or “paid in full”? Which will you choose?
PT
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