Message shared with Ascension Lutheran Church - online worship April 26, 2020.
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24: 36-40)
Back in 2004 Mel Gibson produced a film called The Passion of the Christ. I had to see it along with all the other millions of movie-goers, so I’d know what everyone was talking about.
In the entire movie, the thing that impressed me the most happened in the last 30 seconds. After all the gory, grueling footage of the crucifixion, Mel had to give us at least of glimpse of the resurrection. So, in the last moments of the movie, we saw his depiction of the resurrected Jesus.
And there he was, looking like he had just stepped out of the shower. He was wearing a dazzling white robe and his skin was glowing like the skin of a newborn baby. Jesus was absolutely perfect. Except for the fact that when he reached out his hands, there were open wounds where the nails had been.
And for the first time, the absurdity of a resurrected, yet still wounded, Christ struck me. I mean, God could clean Jesus up and bring him back to life, but he couldn’t heal the wounds in his hands? It makes no sense. And yet, this is true to what we read in the Bible. It took seeing it on the big screen for me to realize how jarring it is.
I mean, what’s up with that? Why, with his all new and improved resurrected body, does Jesus still bear his wounds from the cross?
At first it seems that Jesus somehow needed these marks to prove who he was to his disbelieving disciples. But is this just about Jesus identifying himself to those who needed proof, or is there another reason why the resurrected Christ bore the wounds from his crucifixion?
Those wounds Jesus takes with him in his resurrected body are more than an ID pass to flash at his disciples. When Jesus says, “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself” he is showing his disciples what following the Jesus Way in the world looks like. Jesus' hands and feet mean something to us. We need to look at his hands and feet when we’re all caught up in the glory of God singing, “How Great Thou Art” while ignoring the fact that discipleship means enduring scars on behalf of others.
Without the wounds on his hands and feet, we might be inclined to say that was all in the past and now we worship a Christ who left the nastiness of the cross behind him. Now we’re following a spiritual Christ who reigns in splendor and has been removed from engaging in the ugliness of life in this world.
But we can’t do that. Because we follow a Christ who still bears the marks of suffering in this world. Even in resurrected glory, he still bears the scars of his humanity. That’s significant for us, as Christians. As Richard Rohr has pointed out, Christianity is the only religion in the world in which people worship a wounded God. Think about that that means for us.
Rohr writes: “A naked, bleeding, wounded, crucified man is the most unlikely image for God, a most illogical image for Omnipotence (which is most peoples’ natural image for God). Apparently, we have got God all wrong!
“Jesus is revealing a very central problem for religion, by coming into the world in this most unexpected and even unwanted way….The significance of Jesus’ wounded body is his deliberate and conscious holding of the pain of the world and refusing to send it elsewhere. The wounds were not necessary to convince God that we were lovable; the wounds are to convince us of the path and the price of transformation. They are what will happen to you if you hold sin in compassion instead of projecting it in hatred.
When we look at the crucified Jesus, we see what we do to one another and to the world. When we look at the resurrected Christ, we see God’s response to our crucifixions.”
What does it mean for you to follow a resurrected Christ who still bears our wounds?
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24: 36-40)
Back in 2004 Mel Gibson produced a film called The Passion of the Christ. I had to see it along with all the other millions of movie-goers, so I’d know what everyone was talking about.
In the entire movie, the thing that impressed me the most happened in the last 30 seconds. After all the gory, grueling footage of the crucifixion, Mel had to give us at least of glimpse of the resurrection. So, in the last moments of the movie, we saw his depiction of the resurrected Jesus.
And there he was, looking like he had just stepped out of the shower. He was wearing a dazzling white robe and his skin was glowing like the skin of a newborn baby. Jesus was absolutely perfect. Except for the fact that when he reached out his hands, there were open wounds where the nails had been.
And for the first time, the absurdity of a resurrected, yet still wounded, Christ struck me. I mean, God could clean Jesus up and bring him back to life, but he couldn’t heal the wounds in his hands? It makes no sense. And yet, this is true to what we read in the Bible. It took seeing it on the big screen for me to realize how jarring it is.
I mean, what’s up with that? Why, with his all new and improved resurrected body, does Jesus still bear his wounds from the cross?
At first it seems that Jesus somehow needed these marks to prove who he was to his disbelieving disciples. But is this just about Jesus identifying himself to those who needed proof, or is there another reason why the resurrected Christ bore the wounds from his crucifixion?
Those wounds Jesus takes with him in his resurrected body are more than an ID pass to flash at his disciples. When Jesus says, “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself” he is showing his disciples what following the Jesus Way in the world looks like. Jesus' hands and feet mean something to us. We need to look at his hands and feet when we’re all caught up in the glory of God singing, “How Great Thou Art” while ignoring the fact that discipleship means enduring scars on behalf of others.
Without the wounds on his hands and feet, we might be inclined to say that was all in the past and now we worship a Christ who left the nastiness of the cross behind him. Now we’re following a spiritual Christ who reigns in splendor and has been removed from engaging in the ugliness of life in this world.
But we can’t do that. Because we follow a Christ who still bears the marks of suffering in this world. Even in resurrected glory, he still bears the scars of his humanity. That’s significant for us, as Christians. As Richard Rohr has pointed out, Christianity is the only religion in the world in which people worship a wounded God. Think about that that means for us.
Rohr writes: “A naked, bleeding, wounded, crucified man is the most unlikely image for God, a most illogical image for Omnipotence (which is most peoples’ natural image for God). Apparently, we have got God all wrong!
“Jesus is revealing a very central problem for religion, by coming into the world in this most unexpected and even unwanted way….The significance of Jesus’ wounded body is his deliberate and conscious holding of the pain of the world and refusing to send it elsewhere. The wounds were not necessary to convince God that we were lovable; the wounds are to convince us of the path and the price of transformation. They are what will happen to you if you hold sin in compassion instead of projecting it in hatred.
When we look at the crucified Jesus, we see what we do to one another and to the world. When we look at the resurrected Christ, we see God’s response to our crucifixions.”
What does it mean for you to follow a resurrected Christ who still bears our wounds?
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