“Jesus came 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.” (John 20:19b-20 NIV)
Jesus' hands and feet were not just anyone's hands and feet, but the signs of His real bodily presence. They were the hands and feet of Jesus marked with the wounds of His Crucifixion. It is of great spiritual importance that Jesus made Himself known to His disciples by showing them His wounded body. The Resurrection had not taken His wounds away, but, rather, they had become part of His Glory. They had become glorified wounds.
Jesus is the Lord who came to save us by dying for us on the Cross. The wounds in Jesus' glorified body remind us of the way in which we are saved. But they also remind us that our own wounds are much more than roadblocks on our way to God. They show us our own unique way to follow the suffering Christ, and they are destined to become glorified in our resurrected life. Just as Jesus was identified by His wounds, so are we.
This mystery is hard to grasp, but it is of the greatest importance in helping us to deal with our own brokenness.
-- Henri Nouwen
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