Today’s devotional comes to us from Rev. Lea McCracken. Though she needs no introduction, Lea is the Associate Chaplain and Church Relations Officer in TCU’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Wassenich Award winner, Lea mentors and guides students on their college journey, and she serves as a role model to many. To know Lea is to love her. She is energetic, creative, and hilarious. She is an advocate for all those around her, and I am thankful to call her both colleague and friend.
I hope you find time to reflect on her powerful words today regarding Jesus as our Wounded Healer.
John 20:19-29
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Reflection:
I love the Gospel of John. It is filled with rich narrative and characters that I feel we all relate to. In chapter 19, the disciples were locked away in hiding when the resurrected Jesus suddenly appears to them. He walks in and his first words to his followers are, “shalom,” meaning “peace be with you.” Then he shows them his hands and his side. Jesus is showing his followers his scars. And then he gives them a commission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…” Oh how I would love to be there in that instance to witness this vulnerable moment of restoration and reality, comfort and confusion. But I wasn’t present; and neither was Thomas, apparently. He missed all this. When he came back to his friends, and they shared what they saw and heard, he was stubborn and bold. He basically said, “yeh, ok. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
I can only imagine what happens in that week in between, but what we are told is that Jesus comes back and finds Thomas and shows him his pain, his experience, his reality… his scars; the parts of Jesus that will never go away. And, just like all of us would do, I am sure Thomas gasps, “my Lord and my God.” It was Jesus’ scars that led to Thomas’ affirmation of faith.
In the midst of all the pain and devastation in the world right now, I find great comfort in this particular scripture and the fact the wounds and scars are not only part of us, they are part of Jesus too. We are like Jesus not only in the image of God, but also in our scars, bruises, and wounds. We are not perfect—we are far from it. But even in Jesus’ resurrection, he showed his human side. His flesh did not come back untouched. No, his experience too left its mark. And so does ours…. Our scars, our wounds, our bruises are real. But, so is our faith! And, the intersection of our scars and our faith is where we find our own “Wounded Healer” as theologian Henri Nouwen reminds us.
Let us pray.
Creator God,
May we be reminded that we have a story to tell, a story about your presence come into the world, a Wounded Healer who accepts us just as we are, scars and all. And, as we prepare for another day to cover them up, may we remember that we are a part of your story too. You boldly showed your wounds. May we too, be followers of you. Amen.