beauty{full}: his scars

There is no way I could write this series without at some point directly addressing the beauty of Christ. The interesting thing is that when I sit down to write about the One I find most beautiful, I don't know how to lead in and I don't even really know where to start. Because the truth is that the Bible tells us Jesus had "no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). Literally, he was ugly, unattractive, not beautiful.

So, what's the deal? Is it merely Christ's character, his wisdom and gentleness, his counter-cultural words that are attractive to me, two thousand years down the road? No. And this is where I find myself back where we left off two days ago.

The beauty of Christ lies in his scars.

I use the word "scars" purposefully in this case. First, because if Christ had never died on the cross for me, all his teaching and miracles and life-stories would be nothing more than anyone else's. I don't speak of any of the other great philosophers as beautiful. No, it is his scars that set him apart, that brand him as the one who didn't just speak but sacrificed himself for our salvation.

Second, because have you ever noticed that if a person is wounded prior to death, we do not speak of their scars? Their wounds never have time to become scars. They never progressed farther than bloodied cuts before the life left the body, never to return again. The wounds in Christ's hands and feet and on his side are only scars because he did not stay dead. He is alive, and so he bears the literal scars of the salvation he paid for with his own flesh and blood. He says to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." (John 20:27) The scars are the proof. Not only that he died but also that when we die with him we too can live again with him.

I don't want to see Christ's hands unscarred. I don't want to see Christ's feet whole. I don't want to see Christ's side seamless. Why? Because then I have wasted my time worshiping a mere man who has done nothing more than talk. Christ's scars are the proof of grace, of hope, of unshakeable, everlasting, incomparable love.

"By his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). And by his scars we are saved. Not just from our own sin in this life, but for an unimaginably wonderful future in the next. And the beauty in that leaves me speechless.

{If you're looking for the rest of this series, all the links can be found here. Thank you so much for joining with me this month.}