The Firebreak

In the summer of 1949, a wildfire roared through Mann Gulch, Montana, devouring everything in its path. Thirteen smokejumpers found themselves running uphill with a wall of flame gaining on them at terrifying speed. Their foreman, Wagner Dodge, did something that baffled his crew — he stopped running, struck a match, and set the grass at his own feet on fire. Then he stepped into the blackened circle he had just burned and lay face down in the ash.

The wildfire swept over him and left him alive. The ground beneath him had nothing left to burn.

This is what firefighters call an escape fire — a deliberate destruction that creates a place of safety. The very ground that was scorched became the ground that saved him.

Isaiah 53:5 describes something far more costly: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." The wrath we deserved — the consuming fire of divine justice bearing down on a sinful humanity — found in Christ a willing substitute. He absorbed the full fury so that those who stand in His finished work find there is nothing left to consume them.

We were the ones running uphill with no escape. But the Savior struck the match against Himself. He took the burning so we could stand in the place already paid for — scorched, yes, but safe. Healed by His wounds. At peace through His punishment.