Westminster Presbyterian Church

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1 Westminster Presbyterian Church Richard Baker - March 27, 2016 Sermon Easter The Glorious Scars of His Humanity - and Ours Isaiah 25:6-9, Luke 24:36-43 Those dear tokens of his Passion Still his dazzling body bears, Cause of endless exultation To his ransomed worshippers; With what rapture With what rapture Gaze we on the glorious scars! Charles Wesley, Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending In the passage I just read (Luke 24:36-43), Jesus reminds me of my Uncle Al. Uncle Al was actually my great uncle (my grandmother s younger brother), but everyone, even the neighborhood kids, called him Uncle Al. When I was what maybe 4, 5 years old? (I was the youngest grandchild) I was the perfect audience for Uncle Al. He would sit in that old, worn red chair in the corner of my grandmother s living room (where he always sat), and, after he called me over, he would first pull a quarter out of my right ear (much to my amazement), and then two quarters out of my left ear (to my even greater amazement) and then, with a wink to my older sister (as if to say, watch this, this ll really get him"), he pulls an Easter Egg out of my right ear (to my complete and utter astonishment). I am wide-eyed with wonder. That s Jesus in this scene. I realize that my comparing Jesus and his resurrection to my Uncle Al and his parlor tricks may seem to detract from the glory of the resurrection, but bear with me: Jesus, like my Uncle Al, is playing a little, and I mean to tell you that play and glory are not incompatible. Nor for that matter, are scars and glory. When the resurrected Jesus returns to his followers, he s doing three things: (1) teaching them, (2) showing them the reality of his resurrection, and (3) sending them out into the world to do his work. And in all three, there s an element of light-hearted joy, of play. First, he s teaching them: he opens the Scriptures to them, opens their minds and hearts to the Scriptures we re told, and in so doing he shows them that all the Scrip-

2 tures both the law and the prophets point to just this, just what has now happened: that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that in his name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations. And when the resurrected Jesus does teach like this, he always says something like this to the disciples, Come on now, what s wrong with you? You all should have figured this out on your own, it s all right there in the Scriptures, clear as day. And you can just see the disciples exchanging sidelong glances, glances full of disbelief, joy, and wonder, Really?!?! He thinks we could have figured this out on our own?!?! Clear as day?!?! Really?!?!? The same thing happens when Jesus sends them out into the world: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations starting in Jerusalem, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. You can see their wide-eyed wonder and disbelief: All nations?!?!? Really?!?! Us?!?! Our track record hasn t been so great. And we should start with Jerusalem?! we ll be lucky to get out of Jerusalem alive, we re not exactly heroes there, you know. How are we gonna do this? And again you can see Jesus smiling at their wonder and disbelief: Don t worry, I ll be with you for all the days, even to the end of the age. But Jesus playfulness comes out most when he s showing them the reality of the resurrection, when he s showing them his body. He has this slightly bemused attitude of Really, you shouldn t need to see this to believe... if you d only understand the Scriptures, you d already believe. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. And yet when he does show himself to them, just as when he teaches them, when he shows them his hands and feet to them so that they can see the scars of his crucifixion, it s more with an air of play and playful exaggerated exasperation than it is with one of reprimand or fault-finding. And then (I swear this is true even if Luke didn t get it all down) then with a wink at John the beloved disciple ( watch this, this ll really get them ), he pops that piece of broiled fish into his mouth, and begins to chew with slow, exaggerated relish. The disciples are in complete and utter astonishment, wide-eyed with wonder. Why even the way he just suddenly appears in the middle of them, scaring them to death, saying, Peace so that they almost jump out of their skin I mean, he s having fun. Like my Uncle Al, Jesus seems to to delight in their wonder, in their joy and their disbelief and remember Luke says that their disbelief was joyous disbelief. It was for, it was from, joy. Not the anguished or even angry or despairing disbelief that doubt can sometimes produce, but the joyous, giddy, I-can t-believe what-i m-seeing, it s too-good-to-be-true-but-too-good-not-to-be-true, can-you-believe-it-i-can t-believe-iteither, but-it s-true-it s true-oh-my-god-it s-true-can-it-be true?, who-would-a-thunkit?, wonderful-wonderful-oh-it s-too-wonderful disbelief.

3 And really, is it any wonder that Jesus would delight in this? These are his friends and his followers when they last saw him it was worse than their worst nightmare, and they thought they would never see him again. And now they re seeing him again, and (once they get over their terror) it s better than they could have ever dreamed. It is a joyous moment, it is joy and Jesus rejoices with them. And let s be honest: he plays it up a little too; I mean, really... asking for, and then eating, the piece of broiled fish?! C mon, he s playing a little. And yet there is a serious side to this play, and that s the scars on his hands and feet. Now at one level, it s clear enough why Jesus shows them his scars: the scars say this is the same Jesus who was crucified, dead, and buried; he is the one who now stands before you. The scars prove that. Jesus himself says as much to them: Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Yet, think about it for a moment: why scars? There are at least two other possibilities: it could have been still-open wounds: after all it s only been two day since the nails they were more like spikes were pounded through his flesh. Or it could have been completely new and unscarred skin: he s been resurrected from the dead, a complete cosmetic clean-up entirely unscarred skin was certainly possible, might even be expected. But instead: scars. Think about that for a moment. Imagine for a moment looking at those scars. Over the years, David Owen writes, your body becomes a kind of historical document, in which certain dramatic moments are memorialized in scar tissue. And if that s true for the body, it s also true for the heart. But the body first. Childhood accidents, when you fell at camp or when you got hurt on your first summer job, cuts, burns, broken bones, surgeries, childbirth they re all memorialized in scar tissue. I can still show you where I fell off my bike when I was seven years old. Most every athlete can show you right on her body where her career took a turn for the worse or why he couldn t finish his senior season or why sometimes it hurts to get up in the morning. And Jesus shows them right on his body right on his hands and feet where he bore the weight of all human sin, our sin, where he bore the weight of all human grief and separation, our grief and separation, where the skin split open and the tendons, muscles and ligaments tore down to bone, as he tried again and again to pull himself up if only to say something, if only to breathe only to sink down again and again, gasping, until in the end he had nothing left to gasp Jesus shows them, right there in front of them, on his hands and feet his scars. Jesus shows his scars to the

4 disciples. Imagine for a moment looking at those scars. Surely, he has borne our griefs, and carried our infirmities and sorrows... he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for iniquities; upon him was put the punishment that brings us peace, and by his scars we are healed. That s the book of the prophet Isaiah, written some 600 years before Jesus birth, chapter 53, verses 4 and 5. Sometimes I wonder: when Jesus, the resurrected Jesus I mean, when he was teaching them, when he was opening up the Scriptures, the law and the prophets what passages did he go to? He s a good teacher, the good teacher, and good teachers give examples... Really, wouldn t you like to know which Scripture passages he cited? Certainly Isaiah 53: 4-5 seems likely, doesn t it?: Upon him was put the punishment that brings us peace... And while they were gathered together, suddenly Jesus was in their midst, and he said to them, Peace... And by his scars we are healed... And Jesus said to them, Look at my hands and my feet. Imagine for a moment looking at those scars. Over the years, your body becomes a kind of historical document in which certain dramatic moments are memorialized in scar tissue. And as with our bodies, so with our hearts. Here, this one, this scar, right here, you can still see it if you look closely enough, that s when my heart broke when I was 19 years old. And this one it s much more recent, you can see it much more clearly it s why sometimes it hurts to get up in the morning. We all have them these scars of the heart. We have them individually, and we have them collectively. Scars on our common life and our body politic: March 25, March you can still see their marks and the markers in downtown Dayton. And as for our national body politic, well, almost 50 years later you can still trace the long scar of the Viet Nam war not to mention the scars on the hearts and minds of all who lived through it, all those who went there, and all those who lost someone who went there. And then there s the scar of racism, except that sometimes it seems more like a chronic wound, always festering, always reopening, pulling apart again and again and again pulling us apart again and again and again in new and unexpected ways, bleeding, bleeding and bleeding. And so too with the body of the whole human race, even the heart of humanity: sometimes it seems more like chronic, always open and always re-opening, ever-worsening wounds rather than healing scars. If you go back 116 years ago you find great optimism and hope about the dawning 20th century, not just in Western Europe and the

5 United States but certainly there, too. Optimism and hope that the 20th century would be a century of unprecedented human achievement, advance, and unification. And now, in the first 16 years of the 21st century... well, not so much. And although it seems strange to say, what you long for what you pray for and hope for what you want more than anything else is for the scars to begin to form. Scars are part of the healing process, a part of the process itself, and also a sign that healing is going on underneath the scar. The healing the cleansing, the oxygenation, the repair, the regrowth, the tissue re-formation it occurs in stages and it takes time, and the scar also goes through stages changing in appearance as part of the healing. It can take as long as two years for a scar to disappear completely. And some of course never do. The deeper the wound, the more likely it is to leave a permanent scar. What is a permanent scar but a sign, a memorial, that healing has taken place? Which makes me wonder whether any scar is really permanent. Or in other words, whether we will take our scars with us to heaven, or whether Jesus took his. Of course, I don t know. I don t know what heaven will be like or what are bodies will be like in heaven. On such questions, it s better to follow the wisdom of the wise and simply say that there will be a peace, a beauty, a joy, in heaven that surpasses all present understanding, and leave it at that. But still you can t I can t help but wonder. My first tendency is to say no scars, of course there will be no scars in heaven. Just as there will be no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, and no more suffering, there will be no more scars no more memorials to, no reminders of, our pain and our suffering in heaven. Our bodies will be completely healed, re-formed in splendor. A complete clean-up, cosmetic clean-up included. But then I think of Jesus standing in front of his disciples: Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. The scars are part of who he is (he says this), as much as his hands and his feet and his taste for broiled fish are part of who he is. Those scars belong to the resurrected Jesus, to the glorified Jesus, to the Jesus who ascends into heaven. What his scars say is yes, this is Jesus the same one who has crucified, dead and buried, it is he who stands before you and not some ghost or spirit. But even more than that: what his scars say is that on the cross he bore the weight of all human sin, of all our transgressions and iniquities, and of all the consequences of our sin, all the human grief and separation; he bore their weight until he couldn t breathe anymore and it killed him.

6 But even more than that: what his scars say that our human wounds, our griefs, infirmities and all our sorrows have all been brought into the body, the heart, the very being and life of God. And they have been healed. And that means that our humanity has been brought into the body, the heart, the very being and life of God, and that our humanity has been is being healed. That s what his scars say. What is a permanent scar but a sign, a memorial, that healing has taken place? Those scars belong to God forever. They belong to the body and to the life of the resurrected Jesus. They are the marks of his love for us and his humanity for us. And they are the marks of our humanity restored through him. By his scars we are healed. Those scars are glorious scars. And that we might see them in heaven will only make heaven all the more glorious. Scars and glory are not incompatible, I mean to tell you that. So imagine for a moment, looking at those scars, and seeing them not just as his scars but as yours too both visible and invisible your scars of the body and your scars of the heart. And see in his scars not just your own scars, but those of all those you love, and not just of those you love, but of all humanity, of all the world, of all the universe And if you can imagine that, imagine yourself looking at him and his scars in that way, you too might find yourselves disbelieving in a joyous, giddy, I-can t-believe what-i mseeing, it s too-good-to-be-true-but-too-good-not-to-be-true, can-you-believe-it-i-can tbelieve-it-either, but-it s-true-it s true-oh-my-god-it s-true-can-it-be true?, who-would-a -thunk-it?, wonderful-wonderful, oh-it s-too-wonderful way. And it s hard not to delight in even to play a little with that kind of disbelief, especially when you see it in someone you love, witness both Jesus and my Uncle Al. Play and glory are not incompatible, either. They re all gone now. My grandmother, all her brothers and sisters, all my uncles and aunts. all those who sat in that cramped, old-fashioned parlor, or worked away in that tiny kitchen, or leaned against the doorway, or sat outside, leaning against the cars parked at the curb, smoking and talking and laughing, all of them gone now, gone to glory, except for my mother and my sisters, my cousin Chip and my other cousin well, no one s heard from him in years every family has its lost sheep, I suppose. They re all gone now, gone to glory, taking their scars, both visible and invisible God only knows how many with them.

7 I ll say it again: I don t know. I don t know what heaven will be like or what our bodies will be like in heaven. I don t whether, one day, I ll see Uncle Al there sitting in that old,worn red chair (the one he always sat in). I don t know whether as I stare at him in complete and utter astonishment, in wide-eyed wonder, my four-year-old self again; I don't know whether he ll wink at my older sister as if to say, that really got him, didn t it? I don t know. On such questions, it s better to follow the wisdom of the wise and simply say that there will be a peace, a beauty, a joy, in heaven that surpasses all present understanding, and leave it at that. But still I can imagine. I can imagine for a moment looking at Our Lord s glorious scars and seeing in them his bringing home all the lost sheep, his healing of all the nations, his healing of all things, his life, his glory and ours. And if I can Imagine that, then maybe, as if for the first time, maybe then I can hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, And he will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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