The First Cut is the Deepest

Sheryl Crow has a song called “The First Cut is the Deepest.” In this song she sings:

I would’ve given you all of my heart
But there’s someone who’s torn it apart.
And he’s taken just all that I had.
But if you want to try to love again,
Baby, I’ll try to love again,
But I know –
The first cut is the deepest.

Aside from having a catchy melody, this song accurately describes our human condition. When we’ve been hurt by someone, we have difficulty loving again. And not only do we struggle to love the one who disappointed or wounded us, we have trouble loving anyone! Though we sing so many songs about endless love, it’s actually pretty fragile virtue.

This is what makes Jesus so unique.

The Thursday before Easter, known as “Maundy Thursday,” Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples prior to the cross. Meanwhile, one of these disciples – whom he also called “friends” – had plotted his demise. Christians recognize that on this night the Lord’s Supper was instituted; in about 55 AD the Apostle Paul described it this way:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)

Notice the phrase on the night he was betrayed. At the very time Jesus was experiencing the pain and injustice of betrayal, he was offering his life for his followers. And let’s not think that Jesus didn’t experience real heartache over that betrayal.

Yet Jesus is not called the Savior for no reason. Who else could face the pain of betrayal, and yet still reach his hand out to the lost? Who else could, in fact, turn the results of that betrayal (a brutal and agonizing death) into the source of redemption for so many?

I sorrow for those who see Jesus as a tragic figure – a “great teacher” who was wrongly put to death, died childless, and whose body rotted while his followers wove legends about him. He is so much more than they know. And this unbelief leaves our deep cuts unhealed.