Wounds Still Visible

Margaret Manning

Excerpt:
Whenever I wish my scars away, I remember the curious feature of Jesus's resurrection body.  Jesus bore the wounds of violence and oppression in his body—even after his resurrection.  When the gospel writers record his appearing to his disciples, Jesus shows them "both his hands and his side" as a means by which to identify himself to them.  Indeed, the text tells us that once the disciples see these visible wounds, "they rejoiced when the saw the Lord" (John 20:20). 

The resurrection body of Jesus contained the scars from nail and sword, and these scars identified Jesus to his followers. They told the story of the violence of the crucifixion, and the sacrificial nature of God's love for humanity—a love that was wounded and pierced through by nail and sword.

His wounds reveal something else. God's work of resurrection—indeed of new-creation—begins in our wounded world. The resurrection of Jesus is not a disembodied spiritual reality simply reserved for life after the grave; it bears the marks of his wounded life here and now, yet with a new significance. N.T. Wright, who has written extensively on the central importance of Christ's bodily resurrection for Christians, says it this way:

"The resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot through with great significance....Acts of justice and mercy, the creation of beauty and the celebration of truth, deeds of love and the creation of communities of kindness and forgiveness—these all matter, and they matter forever. Take away the resurrection, and these things are important for the present but irrelevant for the future and hence not all that important after all even now. Enfolded in this vocation to build now, with gold, silver, and precious stones, the things that will last into God's new age, is the vocation to holiness: to the fully human life, reflecting the image of God, that is made possible by Jesus' victory on the cross and that is energized by the Spirit of the risen Jesus present within communities and persons." the rest image