Heal-all

Heal-all is a pretty little plant I found growing in the shadow of Barden Tower. Its Latin name is prunella vulgaris, the latter meaning ‘common’, the former a derivation of Brunella or die Bräune, German for diphtheria, one of the conditions for which heal-all was thought to be most effective. Naming the cure after the illness is ironic. Yet Christ Jesus, the remedy of our sin, was Himself judged guilty of it. Like Moses’ brazen serpent on the pole, which resembled the fiery snakes snapping at Israel’s ankles, so the Saviour of sinners ‘became sin for us’. The One who would deliver us from wrath would Himself bear wrath. The One who would clothe us in white linen would Himself be splashed and smeared by the foulest juices of human depravity. For having resembled and borne the condition, He was able to deliver and heal us from it.

Stung by the scorpion sin,

My poor expiring soul

The balmy sound drinks in,

And is at once made whole:

See there my Lord upon the tree!

I hear, I feel, he died for me.

-Charles Wesley