A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
No one said that in the resurrection life that you would have no wounds, no scars. Though you be transformed, the Creator God takes what was and remakes it into something glorious and shining and beautiful. The scriptures tell us that He makes all things new, not that he obliterates everything and starts from scratch. The tomb is in fact empty. The point of the Easter narrative is that that process of new creation has begun, fully realized in Jesus and spilling out into the world.
What is the point of keeping the scars though? What use are they? Once the pain and anguish, the shame and weight is dealt with by the power of the Spirit...our wounds can be, nay are intended to, give concrete testimony to those whose hopes have been dashed, whose heads are swimming in a pool of muddled doubt and fear and cynicism. Our scars, in other words, remain in order to bring glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. That we might become the covenant faithfulness of God to a world who has only heard rumors that there is life beyond the pain and suffering and yes even death; and that that life is more glorious more wonderful because it has been through death and out the other side, because light has emerged from darkness.
great post man... I like the emphases on the fact that it is a recreation and not a start from scratch creation. sometimes we think that everything is going to be destroyed and done away with and this is obvious in the way we live our lives, as if nothing here and now matters. When I think Jesus' teachings deal with the here and now and the affects our choices and actions will have in the age to come.
ReplyDelete