But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.[Isaiah 53:5]On August 16, 1987, an airliner, with 156 people on board, crashed just after it had taken off from the Detroit airport.
As the rescuers sifted through the wreckage, they came across a sole survivor, a four-year-old girl named, Cecelia. At the investigation there were many reasons put forward as to why Cecelia lived when everyone else died:
* There were those who said Cecelia lived because she was smaller than the other passengers.
* One theory was she was sitting in the right seat which didn't convey to her little body the full impact of the flight.
* Some held to the opinion that Cecelia was just plain lucky.
Now it's true, all of those reasons may have played some part in Cecelia's amazing escape. But, truth be told, there is another -- a more important -- reason Cecelia lived when others died.
In the seconds while the plane was going down, in a moment of crisis, Cecelia's mother made a decision: she unbuckled her seat belt, got down on her knees, and faced her daughter.
She wrapped her arms around her little girl and refused to let go. Cecelia's mother made herself into a living buffer, so that her little girl might live.
Now I would like you to reflect on that for just a minute.
I want you to realize that this mom wasn't given a great deal of time to weigh the pros and cons of what she was doing. She didn't have hours to contemplate the situation and consider her choices. She wasn't given the opportunity to think about the rest of her family, or her job, or retirement.
Cecelia's mother was faced with a crisis and in that crisis she acted courageously. She came through, and because of the mother's death, Cecelia came through.
Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, God's perfect Son, put Himself between us and eternal death. Unlike Cecelia's mother who had to act quickly, the Lord had thousands of years during which He could consider: "Do I really want to sacrifice My Son so this sinful world might be given salvation?"
There is nothing in Scripture that indicates the Lord had second thoughts or even considered an alternative to Jesus becoming one of us. Indeed, so we might be forgiven, so we could be saved, Jesus took our place and died the death our transgressions have deserved.
His third-day resurrection from the dead is His proof, which says, "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19b).
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, I give thanks that You have made the supreme sacrifice which has won my forgiveness. May my life be an ongoing expression of gratitude for Your gracious gift. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours, 
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read: Psalms 15-16; John 9:1-23
Psalms 15:(0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, who can rest in your tent?
Who can live on your holy mountain?
2 Those who live a blameless life,
who behave uprightly,
who speak truth from their hearts
3 and keep their tongues from slander;
who never do harm to others
or seek to discredit neighbors;
4 who look with scorn on the vile,
but honor those who fear Adonai;
who hold to an oath, no matter the cost;
5 who refuse usury when they lend money
and refuse a bribe to damage the innocent.
Those who do these things
never will be moved.
16:(0) Mikhtam. By David:
(1) Protect me, God,
for you are my refuge.
2 I said to Adonai, “You are my Lord;
I have nothing good outside of you.”
3 The holy people in the land are the ones
who are worthy of honor; all my pleasure is in them.
4 Those who run after another god
multiply their sorrows;
To such gods I will not offer
drink offerings of blood
or take their names on my lips.
5 Adonai, my assigned portion, my cup:
you safeguard my share.
6 Pleasant places were measured out for me;
I am content with my heritage.
7 I bless Adonai, my counselor;
at night my inmost being instructs me.
8 I always set Adonai before me;
with him at my right hand, I can never be moved;
9 so my heart is glad, my glory rejoices,
and my body too rests in safety;
10 for you will not abandon me to Sh’ol,
you will not let your faithful one see the Abyss.
11 You make me know the path of life;
in your presence is unbounded joy,
in your right hand eternal delight.
John 9:1 As Yeshua passed along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His talmidim asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned — this man or his parents — to cause him to be born blind?” 3 Yeshua answered, “His blindness is due neither to his sin nor to that of his parents; it happened so that God’s power might be seen at work in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must keep doing the work of the One who sent me; the night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, put the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash off in the Pool of Shiloach!” (The name means “sent.”) So he went and washed and came away seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who previously had seen him begging said, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “Yes, he’s the one”; while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” However, he himself said, “I’m the one.” 10 “How were your eyes opened?” they asked him. 11 He answered, “The man called Yeshua made mud, put it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Shiloach and wash!’ So I went; and as soon as I had washed, I could see.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” and he replied, “I don’t know.”
13 They took the man who had been blind to the P’rushim. 14 Now the day on which Yeshua had made the mud and opened his eyes was Shabbat. 15 So the P’rushim asked him again how he had become able to see; and he told them, “He put mud on my eyes, then I washed, and now I can see.” 16 At this, some of the P’rushim said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep Shabbat.” But others said, “How could a man who is a sinner do miracles like these?” And there was a split among them. 17 So once more they spoke to the blind man: “Since you’re the one whose eyes he opened, what do you say about him?” He replied: “He is a prophet.”
18 The Judeans, however, were unwilling to believe that he had formerly been blind, but now could see, until they had summoned the man’s parents. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind; 21 but how it is that he can see now, we don’t know; nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him — he’s old enough, he can speak for himself!” 22 The parents said this because they were afraid of the Judeans, for the Judeans had already agreed that anyone who acknowledged Yeshua as the Messiah would be banned from the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He’s old enough, ask him.”
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