Scars of Healing

Happy Sabbath, everyone! When I was a kid, I think the first time that I really hurt myself, fell, you know, got bloodied up. I was rollerblading. It was the 90s, give me a break. Okay? It was cool back then. It wasn't sort of, you know, sweating the oldies-style rollerblading. It was tough rollerblading. It was, you know, street hockey, things like that. But me and my friends were jumping off stairs on our rollerblades, and we were trying to see who can not only land it, but who can land the farthest.

And that's when I really remember being hurt. I was the safe kid out of my brothers. I was the one who did not take those kind of risks. But I do remember just jumping off, thought I landed it, knee went down, sliced my knee right up. I just remember. It was terrible. You know, I had that scar for years. You know, after 30 years, it's faded at this point. But when I go home to visit my parents, I drive by our old house, and the old Catholic church, the steps that I was jumping off of, I see that.

I remember skating home with a bloody boot. I have still very vivid memories of that. But, you know, after time, it starts to fade. Those scars do fade. Sometimes we have these injuries. You know, we look at these scars, and it's usually not from a time of...there was a good memory, right? We hurt ourselves. We see these...it reminds of something that's painful or scary. They don't come with good memories. A fall, a surgery, a car crash, a burn. You know, that's what those scars usually tell us. Sometimes we look at them and we're just like, oh man, yeah, I remember that day.

I remember that day. What about our spiritual scars? Yeah, when we sin, we do see the side effects or the consequences in our life, the choices that we make. And we feel like others sometimes can see them as clearly as we can. We...sort of in our mind, it's so clear to us where we've fallen short that we think that clearly everyone else can see as plain as day, like wearing a scar on your skin.

Is that how God sees our scars? Today I'd like to just talk about how scars really are a sign of a healed injury. Just like our body heals, God heals our scars, spiritual scars as well. Let's go to Isaiah.

Isaiah 1. Isaiah 1. Now these analogies, they all break down at some point, so just bear with me today as I'm going through the message today. But Isaiah 1 is where we'll begin today and we'll start reading in verse 18. It says this, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are as red as crimson, they shall become like wool. When God spoke these words, you know, Israel had committed some very atrocious sins, sins that would embarrass some of the worst of humanity.

At least at one point, that's where they get to. Idolatry, injustice, faithlessness, greed, sexual immorality, human sacrifice, they eventually got to. It's shocking at what some of the sins that we read about in the Bible. But here, God is saying something that is encouraging, I think, for all of us, is that He can take that stain, that red crimson, that red stain of sin, and He can remove it.

He can remove a blemish of sin. The IVP Bible commentary says this, that nowhere in the Old Testament or in the ancient near Eastern literature do we read, specifically that red is like a symbol of bad. But what we do read is that white is pure. And God here says to, through His prophet Isaiah, that I will make your sins white as snow, pure. He'll purify them. He can remove the blemish of sin. But you and I, we look at our own history and we think, you know, look at me, though.

This is where I'm at. It's just me. What am I doing here? Am I worthy? Surely everybody else can see that I am just hiding the mess underneath. Everyone can see it. Surely they can. Everyone can see the history of what I'm bearing, like a scar on my skin. Often we feel this way, because sometimes the sins that we commit, they do come with consequences, and we still live with those consequences. And we live with them every day, the ramifications of the choices that we've made.

Well, because of the emotional and mental weight, we feel like everyone else can see it, too, because it feels like that even though God may have forgiven it, I still feel that and what I carry with me. They can be heavy. They can be heavy. The sins that can be heavy. But God, again, doesn't see it that way, and He sees sins in a different way, especially repented sin.

Let's go to 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2.

And we'll read it starting in verse 24.

2 Peter 3.

So we see here that Jesus, He did endure the punishment for us, and He bore our sins. He took on the punishment, and He was wounded. He was physically wounded so that we can be healed.

And we understand that for physical healing as there are scriptures that we go to God and ask for physical healing. But that also applies spiritually to spiritually healing as well.

Peter applies Isaiah's prophecy directly to Jesus. He's emphasizing the power that He has over the guilt, that heavy weight that we feel of sin. Spiritual healing is what we're talking about.

And then I think this next verse is beautiful.

For you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. That's what He did for us. That's what He did for us. It's beautiful how God sees us, even when we sin, when we have strayed away, that He could bring us back, wash us, make us clean, and He's done that through the sacrifice of His Son.

Now, obviously, I'm not saying that sin is okay in God's eyes, but what I am saying, though, today is that repented and forgiven sins are evidence of God's loving kindness and His mercy.

That's what I'm talking about.

Let's go to John 20.

John 20.

We could take this analogy of the scars a little bit further here.

John 20 verse 24.

Now, Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

Okay, it's a story we're all familiar. Thomas wasn't there.

Let's drop down to verse 26.

Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.

And I'm sure at this point he heard the stories, right?

Thomas was with them.

And although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

Then He said to Thomas, because He knew what was on Thomas's mind.

He knew.

He said, Peace be with you.

Here, see my hands and put your hand in the place in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe.

Jesus let Thomas see His scars.

Normally, scars are a reminder of injury or loss or pain or a time that hurt us.

But in this instance, Jesus, they became a proof of His victory.

And that's what He was letting Thomas see.

The wounds that seemed to signify defeat have become evidence of the things that He conquered.

And after He died, the disciples did have a sort of a consonance of defeat, right?

They didn't know what to do.

They went fishing.

But here, Jesus shows Him the scars and shows that He conquered sin and Satan and death.

These scars were not a sign of weakness, but of triumph.

Many theologians have observed that Jesus retained the scars after His crucifixion and His glorified body.

This is a quote I'm reading.

Rather than being imperfections, these wounds serve as eternal testimony to His redeeming work.

A theologian, Wayne Grudem, notes, Christ's scars remain an eternal testimony to His suffering and death for us.

That redeeming work still continues.

All of mankind's sins can and eventually can be forgiven.

So our scars remind us, you know, of an injury, a hurt that once existed.

But they also remind us of healing.

Healing took place.

Now, if you ever go to a doctor and you have surgery and they stitch you up, you know, the stitches are not the healing part.

The stitches are there to support the body that God created to heal.

And that's what a scar is.

Spiritually, many of us carry memories of sins that we regret.

We're people.

I always tell my kids, like, don't come to church and think that we're perfect.

We're not. We're not a perfect people.

We are working towards it.

That's our goal.

But we're not.

Even after repentance, you know, we continue to bear consequences of sin.

But through God's sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.

They're washed away and we're made new.

And remember no more.

You know, God doesn't use terms like, I will remove them from east to west because it sounds good.

It's because that's what He's doing.

And just as Christ retained His scars after His crucifixion as evidence of His victory over sin and death, the places where God works in our lives become reminders.

Not only of that defeat, but of His mercy and His power to redeem and heal every scar, physically and spiritually.