A week after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to Thomas and made a stunning request: "Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side" (John 20.27).What a bizarre request! Why would anyone want to put their hand into a wound like that? What in the world is Jesus getting at? Imagine seeing Jesus in all His risen glory today. No doubt, it would be amazing and overwhelming at the same time. There is one thing you might not picture. Jesus still bears those scars from the cross. Why would Jesus still have these marks? Why didn't the power of the resurrection erase His wounds? Why are the nail prints still visible?
The wounds of the Risen Jesus are an everlasting reminder that His death and resurrection are real. They also give harsh evidence that He truly understands our pain. The fact that even today Jesus carries those scars, demonstrates that God is not out of touch with our suffering nor removed from our struggles. In fact, because of the Risen, Wounded Jesus we are no longer allowed to picture a God who is distant and removed. His scarred hands reach out to us in the midst of our hurts and failures.
The Bible also says, "by His wounds we are healed" (Isa 53:5). In other words, when we touch His wounds, we find peace and wholeness. Perhaps like Thomas, you need to hear Jesus' invitation to "touch His wounds."
2 comments:
Doug- Thanks for sharing. You have a great blog and wonderful things to say but I notice that whenever I come to your blog that there are never many comments. Do you visit other people's sites? I started spending more time on other people's sites than even on the writing of my posts and have gotten much more responsiveness. Just a thought I thought I'd share.
Many blessings.
Paige,
Good point. I do visit several of my favorite blogs regularly and comment on a few of them.
As much as I love comments (you have been awesome in commenting on the last few of my posts), I am not dismayed by the overall lack of comments. I have learned there are several kinds of blog readers. 1) unintentional surfers who just happen on your site. 2) annonymous viewers who come to your site often but are not inclined to write anything on the web 3) dialoguers who fully get the benefits of the blog.
In our church community we still have a lot of people in the second category. For example, I have had over 1000 visits to my blog so far this year, but very few leave comments.
Anyway, thanks for your encouragement and interest, Paige.
DK
Post a Comment