SCARS - HALLMARK OF FAITH

SCARS - HALLMARK OF FAITH John 20:19-31 April 16, 2000 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Our text this morning is at John 20:19-31. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus cam and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "we have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Thought the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Jesus did many other miraculous sign in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. That is the "wide-angle" text, but I'd like us to switch lenses and focus on just a few words in verse 20 for our lesson this morning. After Jesus arrives miraculously in the room with the disciples and greets them with his peace (I'm sure they needed that after someone they did not at first recognize showed up in the room-that can be a scary experience!). Did you notice what Jesus did next? He showed them his scars! He didn't tell them about what it was like to be dead for two-and-a-half days, he didn't comment on meeting Mary that morning outside the tomb or ask where Thomas was, no "I told you so" concerning his resurrection, not even a question about why the guys were holed up in a room with locked doors-He showed them his scars. What is it about his scars that was so important at this special reunion? One man was being given a physical examination as part of his entrance into the Army. The technician, a gruff man, 6'2", 200+ lbs., asked him if he had any scars or identifying marks. He answered "No". The inquisitor said, "C'mon, everybody has some scar somewhere-I need to put something on the form." The recruit assured him he had none. The sergeant looked at him sternly and said, "Come up with a scar, or I'll take you out back and give you one!" He suddenly remembered a birthmark. I have a scar right above my eyebrow where I ran into Larry Wilke while we we playing ball 40 years ago this summer. I'm sure you each have scars-complete with a story to tell about each one. Why was it that Jesus was so interested in displaying his scars? He wanted the disciples to remember the whole story. To Prove His Identity It is obvious that the disciples in the room here did not at first recognize Jesus (why, we don't know-it's a curious thing-the disciples on the road to Emmaus walked and talked with the risen Lord for hours, and they didn't recognize him until they broke bread with him). So, to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt who their sudden visitor was, Jesus showed them the wound marks in his hands and side. There was instant recognition, and they were "overjoyed" the text says. If you examine a piece of fine silver you will find on it some where some marks placed there by the jeweler or manufacturer. You will find initials or some other sign engraved on the bottom of the item, or, as is the case with rings, on the inside of a band. You have King Edward of England to thank for that policy. In the year 1300 he passed a law that precious metal items had to be sold with a guarantee of their purity. The marks are called hallmarks and they have that name because originally, all items made of silver whether pots, dishes, trays, utensils or jewelry were produced by a member of a guild or union, and at that time those guild members both met and worked in large rooms called Halls. Hallmarks are etched or engraved into every item for two reasons, they tell you two things. The first reason is to show that the item is actually what it appears to be - that it is in fact an item made of pure silver, an item that is not mixed with other, cheaper, materials. And the second reason was to tell the purchaser which "hall" the item was crafted in. A hallmark is a guarantee of quality and purity. A hallmark could've been a small crown etched into the base of a silver cup-that would tell you it was from Sheffield. The silversmiths of the city of Chester used three wheat sheaves in their hallmark. Jesus' hallmark was the set of scars from His crucifixion. When He showed them He was "guaranteeing" to his disciples that indeed it was He who was with them. They had heard the pounding of the hammers, driving the spikes into his wrists and feet-some even dared to be close enough to watch. They knew about the Roman spear that was plunged into his side to make his death certain. If you are serious about trying to find Jesus, He will identify Himself to you. Cry out to Him like Saul of Tarsus, "Who are You?" or doubt like Thomas until you are certain. If you seek the Lord with all your heart, you will find Him. "Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you." To Prove His Resurrection In the movie Jaws three men are out at sea searching for the man-eating Great White Shark. During a lull in the search, they find themselves sharing coffee and sharing horror stories. Each one has scars and each one tries to one up the others. One of the characters has scars from the war; another has scars from a previous shark attack. The star character, played by Richard Dreyfus, rips open his shirt and points to his chest without speaking a word. One of the others asks, "What? by-pass? Dreyfus answers, "Betty Sue, 7th grade. She broke my heart." Jesus was making sure the disciples, who were later to write the gospels, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was raised from the dead bodily. The resurrection of Jesus is the crux of the Christian faith. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Christ has not been raised physically our faith is vain and we who believe are most pitiable. I believe the Lord knew that in the ages to come, there would be doubters and skeptics who would attack this most central doctrine of the faith and, in anticipation of that attack, He went to great lengths to provide proof of His resurrection. For instance, the scripture records how over five hundred people were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus. Did you know that there is more historical and literary evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus than there is evidence that Abraham Lincoln was actually the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation? There is more evidence for the resurrection of Jesus than there is for being sure that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock? I want to encourage you to visit our church website this week. I have made arrangements to print the text of an exciting workshop by Dr. William Lane Craig who has extensively researched the topic of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and has produced a piece of solid, logical, well-reasoned argument for the validity of the resurrection. In that workshop, Craig cites the awesome truth that the liberal scholars of the last 100 years who have denied the resurrection have been reversing course by the droves in the last 40 years. In other words, the skepticism about the resurrection of Christ is drying up-along with all the ridiculous theories like the "stolen body" idea, the so-called "swoon" theory, and the outright denial of the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. Here's what I am saying, what Jesus did for the disciples on that Sunday night in a locked room, He has done for us as well-providing ample evidence that He, in fact, was revivified by the power of God on the third day after his crucifixion, death and burial. What this means is, the Good News IS Good News and the testimony of scripture still stands against all comers-"that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time." (1 Corinthians 15:3-6) Aren't you glad that God has not called you to believe in myths and legends, but has acted in space and time, historically and verifiably, to give you reason to believe? Aren't you glad that being a believer does not mean you have to be a mindless, blind sheep who will believe anything you are told without evidence? Brothers and sisters, God called us to think, because He thinks, and we are made in His image. Praise God that He made arrangements to make our faith in the resurrection credible! When we express our faith in Jesus and his bodily resurrection we are not whistling into the wind, and we are not asking others to believe in mythology. As a matter of historical record, the Lord Jesus rose victorious over the grave! And in that act he says he guarantees that we, too, who trust in him, can be raised to eternal life! I'm so glad Jesus took the opportunity to show his scars. To Remind Them of His Suffering Love What do you think the disciples thought when they looked at the scars? Of course, they recognized that it was Jesus who was among them, but what was their second thought? Maybe we should ask Thomas. He wasn't there when Jesus appeared, and understandably (I suppose) didn't believe the others when they said they had seen Jesus. He said, "I'm no idiot! I'm not gullible! I will not be convinced unless I can put my finger in the wounds, and place my hand in the stab wound in his side. What do you know? One week later, as the disciples were in the same room with the doors locked again, and Thomas present, the same thing happens. Jesus appears from out of nowhere and says "Peace be with you." Then he turns to Thomas, who by now is anything but peaceful, and He says, "Tom, you wanted to put your finger in these wounds, and put your hand in this wound? Go ahead!" Back to my question: What do you think ran through their minds as they looked at wounds? Besides embarrassment, what was Thomas thinking? Don't you suppose they were severely impressed by those wounds? I'm thinking they were reminded of that horrible time just 10 days ago when Jesus was being murdered on a cross. They were staring at holes that went clear through the wrists of Jesus and looking at the tops of Jesus' feet they could see through to the floor. I think they were remembering the pain of Jesus' hours on the cross. Once, about 13 years ago, I received a phone call that a good friend had had an accident-she had been working in the yard, picking up sticks and dropping them into the chipper when one of the sticks got lodged sideways. Without thinking, without stopping to notice all the red label warning stickers on the side of the unit which said, "Don't stick your hand in here!", she reached in. Those strong, razor-sharp blades, traveling at such a high speed, took two finger tips off at the first knuckle before she felt a thing. I arrived at the emergency room and was permitted to enter her cubicle. She had here hand stuck down in a bowl of ice. She was still in shock, I think. As soon as she saw me she burst out in tears and said, "Oh, Rich, look what I did!" and she stuck two stubs right in front of my eyes not 12 inches from my face. As the blood drained from my head and my knees buckled momentarily, I was looking at wounds thinking how much it must be hurting her. There's a very good reason I decided early on that I was not going to be a surgeon when I grew up. I can still see that image clearly in my mind-two round things, with perforated flesh for perimeters, encircling meaty red flesh and a cleanly-cut bone in the middle of each. I am imagining twelve men who never forgot the image of those wounds. As they introduced the Lord's Supper to the earliest believers there in Jerusalem, and it came to the part where one of the apostles remembered out loud the words of Jesus who said, "Take this bread and eat it-this is my body," I can imagine twelve men with tears in their eyes recalling with perfect clarity the marked body of the Lord. Or when in the course of teaching the believers, one of them would cite the prophecy at Isaiah 53, "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities," the others would nod in vivid remembrance of those wounded hands and feet and that lanced side-especially Thomas. One of them would later write, still remembering the scars, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24). Another would write, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." (1 John 3:16) An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy's cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck. Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town's wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad's eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hand from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man's neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those scarred hands had settled the issue. Thomas needed to see the scars, Peter and the other apostles needed to see the scars, and God arranged it. Five hundred others needed to see the resurrected body of Jesus, and God arranged it. Even Paul, the apostle untimely born, needed to encounter the glorified body of the Lord, and God arranged it. We need to be reminded of the scars as well. To remember that it was at great cost that the Lord bought us out of our slavery to sin, and gave to us the hope of resurrection. We like the disciples of that day need to be reminded over and over that the identity of the One who paid our admission into the kingdom of God was none other than Jesus. We need such a reminder so that our indomitable pride doesn't rear its head and convince us to start believing that we somehow good enough to have earned God's favor. We need to be reminded continually of the glorious truth that when Jesus rose, He was the "first fruits" of our own resurrection. Because God raised Him from the grave, we can be certain that He will keep His promise and we who trust in Him will be raised to eternal life. And finally we need to be reminded on goingly of the love that sought us and bought us. We need a regular reminder that "God was in Christ reconciling the world (people) to Himself." Today, we once again, break this bread and raise this cup of thanksgiving. We call it communion, we call it a sacrament, unfortunately we sometimes even refer to it as a tradition. Today, may we call it OBEDIENCE to the One Who said, "Do this in remembrance of me."     [Back to Top]