What are we to do after Resurrection Sunday, besides putting away the pretty bunnies and consuming or giving away the extra Easter candy?
Jesus seems to think his disciples need to look at his scars. Yesterday, I chose to wear a sleeveless blouse to church. Thanks to Michelle Obama, sleeveless dresses are in. And frankly for me, I’ve always hated sleeves, because I never can seem to find ones that don’t feel confining to my broad shoulders. So more often than not, once it hits 75 degrees, I eschew sleeves.
Why am I talking about sleeves? Because my right shoulder looks like someone used it to sharpen a knife. There are random slash marks trailing around my bicep and shoulder, where I first lost and finally won, a war to make my shoulder work properly. Yesterday at church, a dear friend, one who wept with me during many of the days that my shoulder was not healing, gently teased, “Have you had some work done on your shoulder?” I smiled and said, “When I see these scars, I remember HIS scars.”
And it’s not a bad thing, to remember Jesus’ scars. Michael Card, in his book A Violent Grace, offers these thoughts on the scars of Jesus and their meaning for our lives:
“Have you ever wondered why the Father chose not to erase those marks of humiliation from the Son’s otherwise perfect resurrection body? After all, God’s power had overcome all the violence — long hours of suffering, a spear to the heart, and death itself. Why not remove the reminders of Christ’s injuries? Why have the wounded Messiah, the crucified King, carry His scars into eternity?
I believe the answer is found in the final act of violent grace.
This violence is not like the ones that fell on Jesus — those ended with his death on the cross. Neither is it like the violence that occurred when Jesus destroyed death — that was accomplished by God’s power when Jesus walked out of the tomb.
The final violence is an invitation from the Crucified One to a crucifixion. And the crucifixion is ours.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16:24-25
I’m not ready to leave Easter, or at least I’m not ready to leave the pondering of the Resurrected Christ, something I imagine we should ponder 24-7-365, so tomorrow we will continue to think about what this cross is that we must pick up. In the meantime, be thinking about scars you bear, whether literal or metaphorical. What stories do they carry with them? What do they reveal to you about Christ’s scars?
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