Christ's Wounds that Heal Us

Do you have any scars with a story behind them? Maybe you have a scar from when you had your appendix removed or some other kind of surgery. Or maybe you were hurt badly enough to need stitches. I have a few scars. One that’s most obvious is over my eye.When I was six months old I had a growth of some sort above my eye that the doctor thought should be removed, so I had an operation. Of course, at six months old I have no memory of the operation. I have a few other scars too, particularly one on my chin. What happened was embarrassing
because I was fourteen, and my friend Joan and I were at a park swinging on some swings. Joan jumped off the swing and landed on her feet, and then I tried and landed on my chin. I felt really stupid. I had to have a few stitches. I remember it rather vividly, probably because it’s the only time that I ever got stitches that I have memory of. I remember going home, looking in the mirror and seeing this jagged bloody gash on my chin with dirt and gravel ground into it. I showed it to my mom who said we have to go to the doctor to get it cleaned out and you’ll probably need some stitches. She was right, and I remember having this this scab with stitches sticking out of it for a week or so, and then the stiches came out and finally the scab came off, and now the scar has faded so much that it’s hardly noticeable anymore. Our scars tell a story, part of the story of who we are and our experiences. They are even a part of our uniqueness.

When Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room after his resurrection, he is recognized by his scars, by his wounds. When the disciples doubt that it is really Jesus in the flesh, he shows them his hands and feet, his scars, to convince them that he is really there. The resurrection appearances are not stories of glowing or ghostly appearances, but of a real human body with fresh physical wounds, the evidence of suffering. Jesus first says, “Peace be with you” to the disciples who are frightened. In our reading from Luke Jesus says “’Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; 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.” His hands and feet with the marks of the nails are not shameful. Though Jesus was subjected to a humiliating shameful death, they are not shameful wounds. Rather they tell a story, a story of who Jesus is. It is a story of suffering and agony, a story of dying and physical resurrection, a story of love and hope, a story of forgiveness and victory over death.

         Our own wounds tell our story. Physical wounds may tell about physical suffering—an accident or an operation may or may not have physical pain associated with it, but usually there is. There are different kinds of scars—for instance, holocaust survivors have a number tattooed on their arm. It is a kind of scar with a story behind it of great physical as well as emotional and spiritual suffering. Besides physical, visible wounds there are psychological wounds that are invisible to the eye but nevertheless are real wounds that tell a story of inner suffering. All of us carry some inner wounds as well as physical scars. Because all of us are born into the web of sin that means we are sinned against as well as we sin against others.

 It’s not possible to live our lives without being wounded in some way, especially as vulnerable children. We may carry wounds from childhood for a long time, which are evident in our fears and our anger. Perhaps one of our parents died when we were young, or a sibling and we felt a great loss or abandonment. Maybe our parents divorced and we felt guilty, thinking it was our fault, believing that somehow if we had been better it wouldn’t have happened. Maybe we felt betrayed by someone we were close to—a parent, a brother or sister, a best friend. Some may have had an alcoholic parent, or one who was depressed, and they suffered abuse or neglect as a result. Perhaps you were humiliated by other children or by a teacher. And, of course, there are many ways in which one can be wounded as an adult as well, by deep disappointment, a debilitating job situation or an illness, the death of a child or of a loved one.

All of these wounds can leave us with many feelings inside that are very difficult to overcome—feelings like fear, abandonment, anger and shame. We all carry wounds of various kinds—they may not be as obvious as our physical scars, but they also tell our story, stories of our own suffering. Sometimes the suffering may be so great, we wonder where is God, why did God allow this to happen?

         The wounds of Jesus are our reassurance that God does not abandon us in our suffering. God does not minimize our suffering. God does not say I don’t care about you--your life is small and unimportant. Jesus’ wounds say, you are so important to me, and I care about your pain and suffering so much, that I came to share your suffering. Jesus knows what it means to suffer not only physical abuse and agony, but also the suffering of loss, betrayal, abandonment, and humiliation. Jesus knows how we feels and shares in our suffering. We are never alone because even in the midst of our suffering, Jesus is there with us.

But God does not simply offer us companionship in our suffering that says I know how you feel because I’ve been there too. When Jesus went to the cross he took upon himself not only your own sin, but the sins of others against you, the sin of the whole world. The power of sin to hold us in fear and despair died with Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ resurrection offers us the redemption of our suffering, of our scars and wounds that actually transforms them into something beautiful and life-giving. The wounds that the disciples saw in the resurrected Christ told the story of forgiveness and of triumph over suffering of all kinds, and over death itself. This is the kind of victory that God offers to us for all the wounds and scars that we carry around with us.

So how do we receive this resurrection, this victory over death, this redemption from the effects of our suffering? The key is forgiveness. In this resurrection appearance in Luke Jesus tells the disciples that the resurrection is for the purpose of forgiveness. “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” When we forgive, or at least move toward forgiveness, we allow God into our pain, we allow God to be the one to deal with those who hurt us, we allow God to transform our suffering into something beautiful. When Jesus was in the midst of his agony on the cross, he forgave right from the cross. It is so important that we have in the scripture those words spoken from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus’ life was a living example of forgiveness, and he taught us that we are forgiven for our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. The only way to be liberated from our hurts and suffering is through forgiveness. We receive God’s forgiveness as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Moving towards healing and forgiveness is a very difficult thing. It takes courage. The deeper the wounds and scars the harder it is. Forgiveness is not the same thing as minimizing our wounds or our suffering, saying it doesn’t matter. Healing deep wounds usually takes time, especially because deep wounds are just that—deep and often hidden from our own awareness. They may be staring other people in the face, but often we are the last to know about them. To become aware of them we need to look for clues inside of ourselves. Usually wounds manifest themselves in either fear or anger. In my own healing process it was fears that were the clues to where the wounds were. Do you have fears or anxieties that seem to control your life? Or maybe you have a deep underlying anger or rage that flares out of control from time to time. Maybe you have reactions to situations that are disproportionate to what happened. Do you see some clues to your where your own wounds are? If not, you can ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you need to see. And when you see it, first we acknowledge the depth of the wound. It really hurt and it did some damage to you. It’s like when my mom and I took a good look at my chin and saw the dirt and gravel in the wound. We saw that I needed a doctor. That means you take the wounding issues to the Lord.

After assessing the damage, the next step is to take responsibility for your own healing process, which is like when I went to the doctor to have the wound cleaned and stitched. For inner wounds it may mean getting help from the Body of Christ, from a priest, a spiritual director, a counselor or healing prayer ministers. Within the love of the Body of Christ you recognize the ways in which you have acted out of your woundedness and have hurt others because of it. This is not beating yourself up, but rather with the knowledge that you are a beloved child of God, you recognizing that you too have been caught in the web of sin and have hurt others. And finally you must choose to forgive, which includes forgiving those who sin against you as well as forgiving yourself. This is when the stitches come out and the scab comes off, and the wound is healed.

         As we receive the Lord’s healing, the stories of our inner wounding and scars become stories of God’s salvation and love for you and for me.  Stories of healing and being set free. Jesus’ wounds are wounds of love. They are a sign of Jesus’ identification with us as we are caught in the web of sin, and a sign that Jesus has given us a way through that web that grips us so tightly. Jesus’ way leads us all the way to healing, forgiveness and life in the power of the resurrection.