The butterfly flitted in and out of my mother’s panda-faced pansies. As a child, I longed to catch it. I raced from our backyard into our kitchen and grabbed a glass jar, but on my hasty return, I tripped and hit the concrete patio hard. The jar smashed under my wrist and left an ugly slash that would require eighteen stitches to close. Today the scar crawls like a caterpillar across my wrist, telling the story of both wounding and healing.
When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His death, He brought His scars. John reports Thomas wanting to see “the nail marks in his hands” and Jesus inviting Thomas to “put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:25, 27). In order to demonstrate He was the same Jesus, He rose from the dead with the scars of His suffering still visible.
The scars of Jesus prove Him to be the Savior and tell the story of our salvation. The pierced marks through His hands and feet and the hollow in His side reveal a story of pain inflicted, endured, and then healed—for us. He did it so that we might be restored to Him and made whole.
Have you ever considered the story told by Christ’s scars?
How do the Savior’s scars promise healing for the wounds you’ve endured? What wounds will you bring to Him today?
INSIGHT
The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke)—so-named because they contain many of the same events in the same order—tell us nothing about Thomas except to list him as one of the twelve apostles (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15). It’s only in John’s gospel where we learn more about his interactions with Jesus (John 11:14–16; 14:5–6; 20:24–29; 21:1–14). In John 11:16, he’s called “Thomas (also known as Didymus).” Thomas is his Hebrew name; Didymus is his Greek name, which means “Twin.” So some translations render his name as “Thomas, the Twin” (