The disciples recognized the risen Lord from the signs of His suffering
By Deacon Bob Hunt
St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), the great Carmelite reformer and mystic, was praying in the chapel of her community’s monastery when she received a vision of Jesus. After contemplating the vision for some time, she finally shouted, “Begone Satan!” Immediately, the vision of Jesus dissipated and before her stood Satan himself. Satan asked her, “How did you know it wasn’t really Jesus?” Teresa replied, “No wounds! No wounds!” You see, the father of lies had appeared before her as the image of Jesus, but without the wounds in His hands, feet, or side. So, Teresa knew it wasn’t really Jesus.
Why did Satan appear as Jesus without wounds? Because that is the Jesus Satan wants us to worship and adore. That is the Jesus Satan wants us to follow: the Jesus with no wounds; the Jesus who did not suffer for us and, consequently, does not demand anything of us, does not require our obedience, does not expect our adoration. Satan wants us to follow the Jesus who promises that we will not have to suffer in our lives dedicated to him, because he did not suffer in his life dedicated to us. The Jesus without wounds says, “Sure, be a Christian, but don’t get weird about it! Don’t make commitments in my name, and don’t make sacrifices for my sake, because I didn’t make any for you. Look! No wounds!”
But Jesus did suffer. He did make sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of Himself. That is why the Jesus without wounds is a lie, and the promise that we will not have to suffer if we follow Him is also a lie. The Jesus without wounds expects nothing from us. The Jesus with wounds expects everything, all that we have, all that we are.
Why did Jesus keep His wounds after the resurrection? St. Bede the Venerable, an early eighth-century English monk and historian, says that Jesus kept His wounds, first and foremost, as a trophy of His victory over sin and death, so they were no longer a deformity but a dignity. Also, it is clear from the Gospel accounts that, after the resurrection, Jesus possessed a glorified body, so that His disciples initially did not recognize Him. Jesus kept His wounds, St. Bede says, to confirm in the hearts and minds of His disciples that it was Him, and that He had truly risen from the dead. Because Jesus kept His wounds, like St. Teresa of Avila, the disciples were able to recognize Him risen from the dead. When St. Thomas saw Jesus for himself and Jesus showed him His wounds, St. Thomas proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
A third reason Jesus kept His wounds was so that when He goes before the Father to intercede for us, and the Scriptures tell us that Jesus is always interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25), He can display His wounds to the Father as testimony of the great sacrifice He made on our behalf.
St. Bede tells us that Jesus kept His wounds to “convince those redeemed by His blood how mercifully [we] have been helped, as He exposes before [us] the traces of [His] death.” Jesus’ wounds are a reminder to us of God’s great mercy toward us and of our mission to take up our crosses and unite them with His. Finally, Jesus kept His wounds as testimony against those who reject Him. Jesus’ heart was torn open for all, though there are some who choose not to enter that open heart. Jesus’ wounds are a testimony against the damned who reject Him.
Here is an explanation of how we were saved by Jesus, what theologians call soteriology, according to the great theologian and doctor of the Church, St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). Because of the disobedience of Adam, we became alienated from God. God desired to be reconciled with us because He loves us. But there is also justice, and justice demanded that we make amends for the offense against God caused by our disobedience. God, however, is an infinite, immutable Being, so the offense against Him was an infinite offense. Because we humans were the ones who offended God, we were obliged to make amends. No others could make amends in our stead. But because the offense against God was an infinite offense, the amends we made must itself be infinite. How could we, finite and stained with sin, make amends for our offense against an infinite, immutable God? We could not.
So, God, in His mercy, sent His Son to redeem us. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity became incarnate, took on flesh, and became man, became one of us in all things but sin. Because Jesus is infinite God, His sacrifice made amends for an infinite offense. Because Jesus is human, His sacrifice of perfect obedience even unto death counts against Adam’s disobedience.
We, too, are called to live a life of perfect obedience to the will of the Father in imitation of Jesus and to offer that life to the Father in union with that of Jesus for the salvation of the world. But obedience means sacrifice, and sacrifice means suffering. That is what it means to “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
We live in a culture that is largely antithetical to the values of the Gospel. As such, if we live the Gospel faithfully, we may suffer for our faith. We may lose a job or an opportunity to work a particular job. We may lose friendships. We may even lose family members who will not tolerate our zeal for the faith. But it is not only obvious suffering for the faith that can be redeemed. Any sufferings we endure, whatever they may be—ill health, physical aging, natural disasters, etc.—can be redeemed, can be given purpose. By uniting our sufferings with those of Jesus, we can participate in the redemptive work of Jesus. Our crosses, united with His, can be instruments by which we, our loved ones, and even the whole world are redeemed.
What does it mean to be redeemed? It means to share in the very nature of God (2 Peter 1:3-4). Jesus “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:8-9). Just as Jesus was raised to glory because of His life lived in perfect obedience, even to death on a cross, so we will be raised to glory to share in the very nature of God, if we unite our sufferings with those of Jesus (Romans 8:17).
St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote way back in the fourth century that “God became man so that man might become God.” This process of divinization, where we come to share in the nature of God, is called theosis, literally “becoming divine.” Just like Jesus, we will be raised to glory. Just like Jesus, our bodies will be glorified. If we share in His sufferings, we will share in His glory. That is the promise of Jesus. And Jesus keeps His promises.
Deacon Bob Hunt is a husband, father, grandfather, and parishioner at All Saints Church in Knoxville.
