Sacred Wounds
Welcome to our second Sacred Snapshot. Today, I’d like to talk about sacred wounds.
Those two words might seem strange to put together. What could be sacred about our wounding? Don’t we want to get our wounds patched up and out of our sight as soon as possible, never to be remembered again?
We do. We try to run as far away from them as we can, not realizing that unhealed wounds make us sick. Ignored wounds turn deadly. Inflamed wounds burn us to our core.
When Jesus showed Himself to his disciples after his crucifixion and resurrection, a most amazing thing was still true of Him. He still carried his wounds!
Crucifixion is a bloody, messy and cruel ordeal. Wouldn’t we think that Jesus would want a body free of the memory of it? Wouldn’t we assume that His resurrection would take his wounds away? Doesn’t healing remove all trace of the pain? Why would Jesus’ renewed body still have his scars?
We know that some things about Jesus’ body WERE different. For instance, he could move through walls. His followers often did not quickly recognize His resurrected self when He appeared to them. Yet, the evidence of where Jesus had hurt was still there. This is the very thing that convinces His disciple Thomas that Jesus was who He had always claimed to be- His wounds!
Thomas was not convinced of Jesus’ identity by His power or by His voice. He needed to encounter the places where Jesus had felt the anguish of pain and torment. He needed to see the evidence of what had been inflicted on His very pain-racked body. So, Thomas reached His hand right into Jesus’ side, the site of the blood and water that poured from Him. Thomas needed more than seeing what had been pierced. He needed to touch it!
Knowing this, Jesus invited Thomas to go ahead and touch his wounds. He had previously discouraged his friends from clinging to His resurrected body. But, He invited Thomas to actually feel the places where He had hurt.
I wonder if Jesus is inviting us to the same thing? Is He asking us to receive assurance of His presence, His understanding and His very real shared humanity with us by showing us His wounds? For many of us, we will not be convinced that He is Who He says He is until we look closely at, even close enough to touch, the places where Jesus had hurt.
Why?
We are human too. We have born the piercing inflammation of cruel intention leveled directly at us. Our bodies have been pillaged and ravaged and discarded. There are still places in each of us that screams out silently, “I hurt!”
We’ve told those places to be quiet. We’ve covered up the gaping holes inside of us. We’ve attempted to fill the caverns of our souls. We’ve carried the shame of things done to us and against us and we don’t want to be reminded. So, rather than seeing our wounds as places where we meet Christ in His, we have disowned these parts of our stories. All the while, the pierced side of Jesus and His nail-scarred hands call to us to come near. Come and be healed.
There is something so comforting about being drawn into the side of someone we love. It’s a place that says, “We stand together.” We draw strength from the presence and the warmth of another, finding that we are safe. There is something so delightful about feeling a hand wrap around ours in reassurance and comfort. It says, “You are not alone. I acknowledge your humanity and I answer it with my own.”
These are the places that bear the scars of Christ, the very places where Thomas’ incredulity turns into declarations of faith. These are the places where our doubts can be answered with reassurance. Thomas meets Jesus in His wounds and so can we.
Today, may we be willing to do the brave work of saying; “I hurt” and trusting that healing can come from the places where Jesus Himself hurt.
Scripture says that by His wounds, we are healed. May we know this in the depths of the darkest places of our weary souls. May our faith be strengthened and encouraged as a result.
