How will we know the Christ?

I was listening to Michael Card’s song, “Known by the scars” and was struck by Thomas’ recognition of Jesus after the resurrection.

So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” John 20:25 NASB

What did Thomas need to see to be convinced that what he saw was Jesus? What did Christ use to identify who he was, the scars. When we look for Christ, do we look for the scars? Every time we eat bread and drink wine do we remember the scars? When we say grace before a meal we must remember the scars. He is known by the scars.

The scars from the beating.

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.            Isaiah 53:5B NASB

What will our glorified bodies be like? If we take a moment to think about that many of us come up with bodies that we, or some advertising firm, have created of the perfect physic, our eyes perfectly spaced, a little smaller ears or nose. But I don’t think we envision the scars we have accumulated living in this fallen world.  The skinned knee from falling or the scar from surgery. The scars from relationships broken. We envision a new world with no tears, no pain and no scars.

How is it possible that the crowds who celebrated Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem less than a week later are now calling for the release of Barabbas and the scourging and crucifixion of the Christ? I find myself so often calling for the things of this world (give me Barabbas) over the things of God. A sort of “crucify Him” on His call on my life, “crucify Him” on His call to be holy, crucify Christ instead of my desires.

I want to be healed by His scars but I don’t want to remember my part in laying on the lashes. His mercy endures forever but so does His scars.

The scars from the thorns.

You are a king, here’s your crown. When Christ returns in the clouds will there be scars on His brow? The greatest king to ever walk the face of the earth, His only crown was made of thorns. The earth produces many beautiful things but it also produces thorns and thistles. The thorns represented sin (Gen. 3:18). What other crown could He have worn?

And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”  Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!”  So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify! John 19:2-6 NASB

Jesus was mocked, ridiculed and mistreated most vigorously before the verdict. Every time a person refuses to believe they slap the Christ, every time a believer refuses to act, they press the crown down. If we claim to follow but do not follow, we exchange a crown of gold for a crown of thorns.

 O sacred Head, now wounded,

With grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded

With thorns, thine only crown:

HYMN: Oh sacred head now wounded

On this earth our crown may be thorns but there is coming a day when we will exchange it for a crown of glory. James 1:12

The scars of the cross.

To have to carry your own instrument of execution, can there be a more devious degradation. When one looks at a life lived and the final work done was to carry your cross to your own execution, can it get any lower?

They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. John 19:17

The Christ spent 30 years of life and what did He have to show for it. Think about this, His entire life culminated on the road known as the Via Delarosa. His final task was dragging that cross up that street. He was one of many, yet never was there one less worthy of that journey.  Can His shoulders and back not carry the scars; should they vanish, be completely forgotten?

We are called to carry our crosses, Mark 8:34. The scars from that task will be evident in our lives if we obey. Paul would only boast in that cross.

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14

How can we doubt our God if He can take a creation of death and torture and turn it into victory. Is anything beyond His transformative power?  If the cross had not completed its intended purpose, salvation would not be possible.

The scars of the nails

Another line from a Michael Card song, “Why did they nail His feet and hands, His love would have held him there”. Love is ordinarily demonstrated by a hug, a kiss, a pat on the back yet our God demonstrated, showed us how much He loves us, by allowing His Son to be nailed to that cross, Romans 5:8.

As the Christ stood before Thomas he told him,

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands” John 20: 27A

Thomas never did reach and touch. Jesus’s demonstration of love did not include a hug, He did not kiss Thomas. The Christ’s new life was really all Thomas had to see; the Christ’s new life elicited the response, “My Lord and my God”.  All Thomas saw were the scars; that was enough.

The only time Mel Gibson appeared in his classic movie, “The passion of the Christ” was when there was a close-up of Christ being nailed to the cross. The hands holding the nail, the fist on the hammer were Mel Gibson’s hands. He knew where he should be. We all should be there but yet, all the scars demonstrate God’s love. That’s how He showed Thomas His love. That’s how He shows us all His love.

Jesus carried the scares to heaven. It’s what our world gave to Him. We must ask ourselves, what memorial are we leaving with Christ?  Praise God that by His Spirit, not all are scars.

The scar of the lance.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;      Isaiah 53:5A NASB

The scar of the lance is a scar of “confirmation”. First for those who executed our Lord:

But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34 NASB

Secondly for Thomas:

“reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”        John 20:27B

Lastly for us: The lance was the confirmation that it truly was “finished”, the total price had been paid.  The conformation that a way has been made for us to repair a relationship with God that had been destroyed by our disobedience (sin), Colossians 1:20. God took a means of torture, a means of execution, and made it the Gospel, 1 Corinthians 1:18.

The curse of those who are hung on a tree Gal. 3:13, became in this world of sin, the replaced “tree of life”.  Could the Via Delarosa, Golgotha, Pilate’s court, the place of scourging be the portal, the way, to Eden for our souls? The light shines more brightly in the darkness.

Another quote from Michael Card in reference to God’s love, “He could not love more and would not love less”.  Who can fathom the depths of His Love? Scars are not painful, they are a reminder. They remain a part of Christ’s glorified body. The wages of sin is death (scars) but the gift of God is eternal life “through” our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 6:13.