I will become sick, so that you might become well

One father sees and hears his sick child call for him. Though he responds he doesn't go near for fear of being "contaminated". Distance uncrossed, the child is left untouched comfortless in sickness. The father is not willing to risk getting sick for the sake of the child wanting to be with him.

Another father sees and hears his sick child reach for him. Without thinking of himself he walks forward, bends down, and picks up his child in his arms. He feels the child's breath on his neck. He pulls closer, he holds tighter. The father is willing to risk getting sick for the sake of being with his child.

When God so loved the world, a world plagued, infected, diseased, and incurably sick in and from its sin, He didn't look on from a safe distance. He didn't look away from the horrific sight or turn away from the unbearable smell. He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

He risked it all. He came to us. He lived with us. He ate with us. He died for us.

God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). 

In Jesus Christ, God took on flesh and took our sin. It's as if God in Christ walked forward into our desperate condition, bent down, picked us up, and then pulling us close and holding us tight, He said, "I will become sick, so that you might become well."

"For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

And so on the cross Jesus willingly and sacrificially took the disease of our sin, received the diagnoses of our death, endured the torment of our suffering, drank the isolation of our eternal separation, and died the death we should have died. The Father looked and turned away from His Son, Jesus.

Why?

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

We have no other hope, no other cure! Our heart is "desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9)!

And so it remains only for us, first, to admit and confess that we are "sick" and cannot heal ourselves, and second, to look away from ourselves and to look upon Jesus our Healer (Exodus 15:26) and put our trust and hope in Him (John 3:14-16). 

In Jesus alone will God look on us, turn towards us, hold us, save us, and heal us.