MPC LENTEN DEVOTIONS

A fictional character said she likes scars because you don’t know what’s beneath them.  Jesus’ scars?   We Christians know what is beneath them, the love of God! 

Some scars are hideous, causing us to turn away; some make us uncomfortable, and we quickly avert our eyes.   Other scars seem to blend in and give the owner character or gravitas.   Some of our physical deformities make us ashamed, and we covertly cover them.  Our personal scars are sometimes deep and so embedded, they only show in our talk, what we think of ourselves, or how we respond to others.  Every scar brings back memories of the occasions that stamped us.  And though others may not know what lies beneath our scars, we do: a pain that has faded to a pale shade of remembrance, like an old, creased photo, with marred, bent edges, an image fading before our eyes.  The salve for those wounds?  That Balm in Gilead that heals the sin sick soul. But on the other hand, there are some scars we wear as a badge of courage, an emblem of strength, a sign of godly pride: when we are shunned, denied opportunities, talked about, cheated or lied on because of our faith in the Jesus, those are beautiful scars.

And so, as we conclude the Lenten season of 2022, we come face to face with our own mortality, dust to dust.  Our sins rear up in front of us as we turn our eyes to Jesus, the perfecter of our faith, the Love who suffered for a wretch like me.  Jesus who willingly welcomed the hate filled rejection of humankind in order to save the very ones who spat on Him, mocked Him, struck Him, and offered Him the bitterness of their failings.  He is the Love who endured the scars of mockery and hatred as He bore the whip’s lashes, suffered holes in his hands and feet, and writhed under the pain from His bleeding head that bore the mockery of a crown.  His scars, though outwardly ugly and hideous, hid the Love that makes us whole, that gives us a righteousness we could never achieve without Him. 

The scabs Jesus bore are not mysterious nor difficult to understand; these scars are a testament to God’s love, that He loved us so much that He gave us His beloved Son.  A love so profound and eternal, so encompassing, and boundless, a love so unconditional that it bore hatred and fear with such dignity and humility that are beyond our grasp.  We are compelled during this Lenten season to walk the 40 days remembering His sacrifice while we hold on to his nailed pierced hands, stumbling forward in our flawed humanity, seeking to emulate in some way His sacrifice.   Jesus suffered so that we can be made whole by the scars He bore, allowing us to be reconciled to and forgiven by the God who loves us so.