y, and we will understand why. We determine with Thomas in his doubting. We perceive his skepticism, we stand with

The Wounds Of Jesus A Sermon On John 20

The Wounds Of Jesus A Sermon On John 20:19 - 29
by: Rev. David B. Smith
Welcome to the primary Sunday after Easter - a day usually referred to in ecclesiastical circles as ‘low Sunday', for reasons which might be absolutely too obvious to require clarification.
As we speak shares the title of ‘low Sunday' with the first Sunday after Christmas - again for causes too apparent to bear repeating.
And this year at this time we do as we do yearly on this low Sunday - we hear the story of Doubting Thomas once more.
Most tales in the Bible are learn every three years in accordance with the cycle of readings spelt out in our lectionary. This story although is scheduled to be read every year, and once more for reasons that I presume are obvious.
We love this story. The church common loves this story. The church throughout historical past has all the time loved this story, and we will understand why. We determine with Thomas in his doubting. We perceive his skepticism, we stand with him in his wrestle, we see ourselves in his tornness and in his confusion.
All this makes perfect sense to me, as the need to have a low Sunday makes perfect sense to me, and yet there is one facet to this story that, to my mind, doesn't fit with all the apparent good sense of the primary Sunday after Easter but which stands out like a sore thumb for me every year when I hear this story repeated, and it is this: why did the resurrected body of Jesus have holes it?!
I'm assuming that you already know the story in addition to I do. Forgive me should you do not. The date was Easter Sunday evening. The doorways had been locked where the disciples have been out of fear that the authorities who had destroyed Jesus might come in search of them subsequent, and yet by some means it was not the authorities that got here crashing in on their private gathering however Jesus Himself - beforehand dead but now very much alive, and He showed them, we're told, his arms and his facet.
Thomas apparently wasn't with them at that fateful meeting however solely heard about Jesus' bizarre look to them second hand. He was understandably skeptical and needed to see Jesus for himself - expressing a selected curiosity in seeing the wounded hands and facet: "Until I see the nail marks in his fingers, put my finger into them, and put my hand into his aspect, I'll never imagine!"
Per week handed, and it should have been a long and tense week between Thomas and the remainder of the disciples, but happily Thomas was with the others when Jesus repeated exactly the same stunt once more - somehow showing within the room regardless of all of the doorways and latches that should have kept Him out. And the first thing He does after saying 'G'day' to the group was to indicate Thomas His fingers and His side. "Put your finger here, and have a look at my hands. Take your hand, and put it into my aspect. Stop doubting, however imagine."
And I do not know if Thomas stuck his fingers into the nail marks in Jesus' arms, and I do not know whether Thomas thrust his hand in Jesus' aspect as invited, however what I do know and what's quite clear at each step of the narrative is that Jesus was, in some sense or another, nonetheless carrying the injuries of Good Friday in His Easter Sunday body or at the least the marks of these wounds, and that bothers me!
Jesus was in His resurrection physique. The body of Jesus had been changed by means of the experience of dying and resurrection. There isn't a doubt about that. As this Gospel passage itself makes clear, the resurrection physique of Jesus was not certain by the same earthly limitations as his previous physique had been. The resurrected physique of Jesus appeared to be able to come in and out of locked rooms as Jesus appeared and disappeared, and that physique evidently seemed totally different, such that Jesus' disciples typically at first did not recognise Him.
That, in itself, is type of what we would have expected - that the resurrection physique can be something of an upgrade to the normal earthly model.
We search for the coming of a better world and Jesus, the Bible tells us, is the ‘first fruits' (a sign) of what's to come back (1 Corinthians 15). As Christ has been raised, so lets be raised. As Christ was given a new body, so we could be given new bodies. And in that better world, the place ‘the earth will likely be as stuffed with the data of the Lord because the waters cowl the sea' and the place sorrow and pain give strategy to joy, our new resurrection bodies discover an eternal residence, which leads me to wonder though whether or not, if Jesus is truly our mannequin right here, all these resurrection bodies will nonetheless carry with them the disfigurements that came to them during their earthly lives?
Possibly that's how we recognise one another in Heaven? Perhaps someday considered one of you'll come as much as me and say, Dave, I'd recognise that damaged nose anyplace!” It's possible.
In the event you're conversant in Homer's Odyssey, it's possible you'll bear in mind how Ulysses, after he returned from the Trojan warfare, was unrecognisable even to his family but how, as the story goes, he was given a shower by the getting old nurse, Eurycleia, who recognised him by a scar that he had on his leg.
In reality, it's our scars that id us to those who know and love us finest and, conversely, I think that essentially the most significant a part of attending to know somebody intimately is in getting to know their wounds. Even so, it is outstanding how the woundedness of Jesus has divided folks religiously across space and time.
One of the earliest Christian heresies was ‘Docetism' (from the Latin ‘doceo' meaning ‘to look'). Docestists believed that Jesus solely appeared to be human and that He solely gave the impression to be struggling on the cross. Jesus, the Son of God, might not likely suffer in fact. He could not experience actual ache.
Islam, in fact, followed in the path of the Docetists (in a sense) by denying that Jesus really suffered and died on the cross. Whereas Christians claimed that Jesus had suffered of their place, Mohammed claimed that another person had suffered in Jesus' place, for it simply could not be that a prophet like Jesus might undergo and be wounded and die in such a terrible manner!
St Paul reflected very equally, that while the Greeks might need thought of the idea of resurrection to be silly, for his fellow Jews the very idea that God's Messiah might undergo and die in such a humiliating style was not a lot foolish as downright offensive!
Evidently the spiritual mind struggles with the idea that any Son of God may suffer and be wounded and die such a horrible dying, for it simply rails in opposition to our total idea of justice, and but we all know that the Gospels fully embrace this.
Fairly than attempting to skirt around the loss of life of Jesus, the Gospel writers assert it boldly. Quite than deny the brokenness of Jesus, the Apostle Peter goes so far as to say to his congregation by His wounds you've been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). And even in these sketchy publish-resurrection stories the place so much is mysterious - where we can't make certain precisely what Jesus regarded like or how His physique behaved the best way it did, one factor is abundantly clear, and that is that the scars of Jesus were still there, and that certainly they were a key point by which His associates have been reconciled to Him!
In truth, I have no idea why Jesus continued to carry His scars in His resurrection physique and I do not know whether or not because of this all of us will one way or the other carry our scars into eternity, but what I do know is that there is no manner of sanitizing the story of Jesus if we are going to remain true to the Gospels, any more than we will rationalise ache out of the Christian life. We can not remove the scars of Jesus for there is no Jesus aside from the struggling Jesus, just as there is no resurrection without the cross!
After I was a youthful imagine I figured that in case your life was touched by Jesus you'll be instantly and utterly healed from head to toe and that every one your pains and illnesses could be a thing of the previous - whether or not they be bodily complaints or dependancy problems or a history of emotional abuse - all can be healed. And I nonetheless believe within the therapeutic energy of Jesus, though we discover, don't we, that even when therapeutic takes place, scars stay - old fears, struggles, reminiscences that gained‘t go away - they continue to be part of who we're.
Can we be the people we're with out those scars? I do not know. What I do know is that we are damaged individuals. And even when we've got experienced the therapeutic touch of Jesus in our lives we remain damaged people. And it is in our brokenness that we discover ourselves reaching out to Jesus, realizing that He has been damaged too.
And perhaps that is the most important motive of all as to why we love this story of Thomas a lot, even when it may not be so apparent at first. Perhaps it's not solely that we identify with Thomas in his doubts, but even moreso that deep down we, like him, are wounded individuals yearning to make contact with the wounds of Jesus?
And so on this low Sunday when every part appears so easy, let us take a moment to replicate on what is probably the best miracle of Easter, even if it isn't so obvious at first - that He who is risen is the one who was crucified, and (thanks be to God) that the one who was crucified is risen!
About The Writer
Parish priest, community worker, martial arts master, professional boxer, creator, father of 4