The Wounds of Jesus

It is without a doubt that the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are the fundament of our Christian faith.  This is seen in the way that these four elements or aspects of Jesus’ life are featured in all four gospels of the New Testament.  But what is outstandingly unique about John’s account of the resurrection is that he gives a lot of emphasis on the wounds of Jesus even after the event of the resurrection.  The Gospel text of the Mass which we see on every second Sunday of Easter, regardless of whether we are in year A, B or C in the liturgical cycle, it is from the resurrection account of Jesus from John’s gospel that we read.  

 

Why does John feature so prominently the wounds of Jesus?  One reason could be because John makes a case for this deliberate show of Jesus’ wounds through the conditions that Thomas made in order for him to truly believe that it was Jesus who truly rose from the dead.  He saw Jesus nailed to the Cross on Good Friday, and for him, it was going to be the deal breaker for him to come to believe that it was the very same Jesus, and not some imposter, who appeared to his fellow disciples.

 

John’s account of Jesus’ appearance before Thomas does bring him to being 100% sure of Jesus’ resurrection. John writes that Jesus walked through those locked doors of the upper room where the disciples were huddled in fear, and as Thomas demanded, Jesus did show him his hands and his side.  

 

But what was it about the wounds that gave Thomas that assurance?  Wounds themselves are but injuries made to a mortal, physical body that is capable of being damaged.  And because our skin has within it a multitude of nerve endings, when the body is afflicted with injury and trauma, it is also capable of feeling pain.  More to it, because of the healing properties that are inherent in the human body, when parts of it are injured, it is also capable of healing through the complex immune system within it, but in the process of healing, will almost all of the time leave scars that are evident of a past injury or trauma.

 

In John’s account of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas, although Thomas conditions his belief in being able to place his fingers into the wounds that the nails made in Jesus’ hands, and being able to place his hands into the wounded side of Jesus, we are not told that Thomas actually did this when Jesus appeared to him.  What Jesus does say to Thomas is “you believe because you see”, and not “you believe because you touched”.  Too many of us read too much into the text and come to the conclusion that Thomas had his conditions fulfilled by touching the wounds, but nothing of this is said in the gospel account.  If we take the bible literally and seriously here, we cannot assume that Thomas actually did touch the wounds and this is an important point, because if it is the sight of the wounds of Jesus that made him utter that fundamental declaration of faith in crying out “My Lord and my God”, we need to explore what it is about seeing the wounds that gives Thomas this assurance that it is Jesus who is God. 

 

If it is just the sight of the wounds that made Thomas make this momentous declaration of ultimate adoration and exaltation, what did Thomas see?  The sight of bodily wounds do not in themselves lend anyone to such an exalted exclamation.  Therefore it has to be something that Thomas saw in and through the wounds.  I am quite certain that what Thomas saw was the love of his God, and this was what the wounds revealed, without even the need to touch them.  In fact, Thomas was touched by the sight of the wounds, and that was the true game changer.

 

If there is anything that changes us from within, and if there is anything that can cause any degree of serious conversion in our lives to want to live with more courage, more hope and with greater effort for the betterment of others, it is that we know we are loved. People in romantic love are powerful people because they will go to the ends of the world to want to demonstrate that this love is not wasted on them, but that they want to return this love with a certain profundity.  If this is true of romantic love, it is infinitely truer when we know that we are loved at our core, in the pit of our very being by God, because God doesn’t need to, but chooses to do this out of pure goodness.  This is the love of which Augustine wrote about when he said “thou hast made us for thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee”.  

 

Even before Augustine wrote that in verse, the Thomases of the world knew this truth in their hearts.  

 

Yes, it is true that what Thomas’ exclaimed that day was brazen and bold.  It is also  something that every disciple of Christ needs to boldly echo in life. I have seen it embroidered in gold letters on banners adorning Altar frontals on which stands the Eucharistic Lord in beautiful monstrances in many churches.  Whilst declaring Jesus is Our Lord and Our God is objectively true, if we have not come anywhere close to realizing that this God has a real and sacrificial love personally for me, then the God that I am worshipping is still a very distant God. 

 

The incarnation is a bold demonstration of how much God wanted to close this distance between him and us. The wounds of Jesus show how high the price of love was, and how far he was willing to go to pay it.