behold my side

“After eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace be unto you ’. Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing’. And Thomas answered, ‘My Lord and My God’. (John 20:26-28)

When after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his badly frightened, and dejected disciples, He showed them His scars. He ate fish with them, spoke to them and rolled up His sleeves and opened His robe to show them His actual scars in hands and side.

One of the things this story illustrates is that Jesus truly “has come and remains in the flesh”. One of the heresies of the early church was the Docetic teaching. Docetism, from the Greek word Dokeo- def. ‘to seem’, is the teaching that Jesus only seemed to be Incarnate, He really wasn’t ‘in the flesh’, He didn’t really suffer anything, (God cannot suffer) and He only seemed to be Incarnate. The Koran of Islam incorporates Docetic teaching, in their emphatic denial that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, Judas died in his place! The Surrealist painter Salvador Dali did a version of the Last Supper, which featured a Docetic Jesus- in the painting, you can see right through Him to the wall behind him!

This story and indeed much of the resurrection narrative in John’s gospel would be an antidote to this heresy. Truly, Jesus Christ has come (and remains) in the flesh! The elements of the Gospel are so physical! The cross, the heavy stone rolled across the grave, the fact that John had to stoop to enter the tomb on that resurrection morning, the sight of the empty grave clothes, which made both John and Peter instantly believe. One can almost smell the breakfast that Jesus cooked on a coal fire for the disciples, the fish Jesus ate in their presence, and of course the scars in Jesus hands and side, ”Handle me…” The Gospel of Jesus is far from ethereal; it is set in this world of time, space, matter, dates, historical events, and persons, “He was crucified under Pontius Pilate…”

Peter and John, we are told, both believed upon seeing the empty grave clothes, but for Thomas it was the sight of the scars of Jesus, that made him into a believer. It was upon seeing those scars that this monotheistic, devout Jew made an otherwise unthinkable profession, “My Lord and my God!”

What kind of a God is the God of Thomas and the apostles? God as a human? A scarred God? A God who allows his human enemies to inflict upon Him scars? We worship a God who has entered completely into the human condition, with all of its joys as well as all of its sorrows.

What is it to be human, if not to be scarred? Who hasn’t borne the scars of disappointment, guilt, shame, frustration, futility, and betrayal time and again in this life? To be human is inevitably to be hurt, whether the wounds be self inflicted or through the sinfulness of others, as Jesus said, ”It is impossible but that offenses should come.”

But in the Gospel we see that the God we worship has entered into the suffering of humanity, the cross was an identification with us, in guilt, shame, penalty and agony. The scars of Jesus bear witness to this.

One of the qualifications of Jesus as our heavenly high priest is his ability to know first hand our limitations, temptations and the suffering that sin has caused to abound in our world. Jesus sits at the right hand of God in heaven and bears the scars of the cross!

Paul warned us that the Gospel of the scarred God would be a scandal to both Greek and Jew. The Greeks believed that ‘the true God’ would be pure spirit- pure logic- impassable (beyond and incapable of suffering) and completely transcendent, unknowable. To the Jews, God is (and can only be) the omnipotent, invincible, awesome God of power and might! Where is the wisdom in a crucified God? How could an all-powerful God be scarred? What philosophical answers could there be in a Divine “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief?”

“The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.” (I Cor. 1:22-23)

Neither Jew or Greek can discern in Jesus’ scars what Thomas did. They saw no power, nor wisdom in the crucified, scarred God. To see what Thomas and countless millions have seen down through the ages takes a revelation from God. If you can see God in the scarred, crucified Jesus, if you can see the power of God and the wisdom of God in the cross, that is the sign that you are “being saved”.

“But unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the Wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24)

To the demand of sinful man for answers to the problem of evil, death and suffering, God doesn’t offer a philosophy, or a definitive and satisfactory thesis, he presents Jesus crucified, as the answer.

To the oft-raised complaint that rises from sinners -“If God is an all powerful being…how could he allow…(fill in the blank)? Where was God at Dachau, or at Treblinka? Where was He on 9-11? When will this supposed God show us His power and Love?” The reply from heaven is nothing more or nothing less than the “despised and rejected …man of sorrows, fully acquainted with grief”, Jesus and His scars. Can you see the Wisdom and power in this?

What answer for suffering and evil would satisfy man anyway? If he eradicated all evil right now by His power (He could do this!) He would have to destroy everybody! Evil is not a substance out there somewhere; it is a plague that thrives in the hearts of all men everywhere.

The God given answer and the power is revealed in that, to save sinful man, He would become a man and enter into our suffering, He would take responsibility before God for our sins. The scars of Jesus testify to this.

Edward Shillito “got it”. He was an English Christian who endured the horrors of the First World War, and afterward wrote a poem which speaks powerfully to the meaning of Jesus’ scarred hands and side; He called it JESUS OF THE SCARS,

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now: Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars; We must have sight of thorn pricks on Thy brow; We must have thee, O Jesus of the scars.

The heavens frighten us; they are too calm; In all the universe we have no place; Our wounds are hurting us, where is the balm? Lord Jesus, by Thy scars we claim Thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near, Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine; We know today what wounds are, have no fear, Show us the scars, we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak; They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne, But to our wounds, only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

One day soon, the Jews who so seek a sign will actually have a ‘Thomas experience”. They don’t believe in Jesus right now, He wasn’t powerful enough for them, He was crucified - He didn’t bring peace to the World, so they can’t see God in Him! But we are told by the Prophet Zechariah, that in the last days,

“…They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him as an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness for his firstborn…” (Zech. 12:10)

Like Thomas, seeing the scars of Jesus will cause them to believe, and own Him as “Lord and God”. We are told that on that day a fountain shall open up for cleansing,

“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” (Zech 13:1)

Thus the picture in John of the handling of Jesus’ scars is a picture of the consummation of history, the final salvation of Israel and the end of the world. What a God! What a Savior! My Lord and My God!

It's good (and it was necessary) that Jesus did rise from the dead, but that -- just by itself -- was not quite enough.

What was also important was that this was His death as the Passover Lamb of God, and that things were done in a precise manner, as foretold long before that time, by God in His Word.

How the Passover Reveals Jesus Christ

by Rich Deem

Introduction

The festival of the Passover has been celebrated by Jews for thousands of years. It is the retelling of the great story of how God redeemed the Jewish nation from enslavement in Egypt.¹ The celebration itself was given to the Jews while they were still in Egypt.² The original celebration centered around the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed and its blood put over the doorposts as a sign of faith, so that the Lord passed over the houses of the Jews during the last plague poured out on the Egyptians - the killing of every firstborn.³ To a large degree, the Passover lamb has been eliminated from the Passover festival (with the only remnant being the roasted lamb shank bone).⁴ The New Testament says that Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb.⁵ The Passover lamb was to be a "male without defect,"⁶ which is the same description given to Jesus.⁷ In addition, when the lamb was roasted and eaten, none of its bones were to be broken.⁸ This fact was also prophesized for the Messiah, whose bones were not to be broken.⁹ It was customary during crucifixion to break the leg bones of the person after a few hours in order to hasten their death. The only way a person could breathe when hanging on a cross was to push up with his legs, which was very exhausting. By breaking the legs, death followed soon by asphyxiation. However, in the case of Jesus, they broke the legs of the other two men, but did not break His, since He was already dead.¹⁰

Passover symbolism

Much of the symbolism of Jesus' last Passover week is lost to us because we are unaware of the customs of the time. For example, Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem five days before the lamb was killed in the temple as the Passover sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel. Five days before the lamb was to be sacrificed, it was chosen. Therefore, Jesus entered Jerusalem on lamb selection day as the lamb of God.¹¹ The people did not understand the significance of this, since they greeted Him with palm branches¹² and hailed Him as King,¹³ shouting "Hosanna,"¹⁴ which means "save us." However, they were not looking for a spiritual Savior, but a political savior. Palm branches were a symbol of freedom and defiance, since Simon Maccabeus had entered Jerusalem with that symbolism.¹⁵ Jesus' reaction was to weep,¹⁶ since He realized that they did not understand the Messiah's purpose in coming.

Passover sacrifice

Good Friday was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. For the previous 1,200 years, the priest would blow the shophar (ram's horn) at 3:00 p.m. - the moment the lamb was sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the sacrifice for sins on behalf of the people of Israel. On Good Friday at 3:00,¹⁷ when Jesus was being crucified, He said, "It is finished"¹⁸ - at the moment that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the shophar was blown from the Temple. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place. At the same time, the veil of the Temple (a three-inch thick, several story high cloth that demarked the Holy of Holies¹⁹) tore from top to bottom²⁰ - representing a removal of the separation between God and man. Fifty days later, on the anniversary of the giving of the law (Pentecost), God left the earthly temple to inhabit those who call on the name of Jesus through His Holy Spirit.²¹

Burial

The festival of unleavened bread began Friday evening (at sunset). As part of the festival, the Jews would take some of the grain - the "first fruits" of their harvest - to the Temple to offer as a sacrifice. In so doing, they were offering God all they had and trusting Him to proved the rest of the harvest. It was at this point that Jesus was buried - planted in the ground - as He said right before His death.²² Paul refers to Jesus as the first fruits of those raised from the dead in 1 Corinthians.²³ As such, Jesus represents the fulfillment of God's promise to provide the rest of the harvest - resurrection of those who follow the Messiah.

Resurrection

Christian symbolism in the Passover occurs early in the Seder (the Passover dinner). Three matzahs are put together (representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The middle matzah is broken,²⁴ wrapped in a white cloth, and hidden, representing the death and burial of Jesus.²⁵ The matzah itself is designed to represent Jesus, since it is striped and pierced, which was prophesized by Isaiah,²⁶ David,²⁷ and Zechariah.²⁸ Following the Seder meal, the "buried" matzah is "resurrected," which was foretold in the prophecies of David.²⁹

Christian communion

It was during a Passover seder³⁰ that Jesus proclaimed that the meal represented Himself and that He was instituting the New Covenant, which was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah.³¹ The celebration of this covenant has become the ordinance of communion in the Christian Church. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the unleavened bread, broke it, and said that it represented His body.³² Then He took the cup of wine, which would have been the third cup of the Seder - the cup of redemption. He said that it was the new covenant in His blood "poured out for you."³³ It is through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are declared clean before God, allowing those of us who choose to accept the pardon, to commune with Him - both now and forevermore through the eternal life He offers.

Conclusion

If you are a Christian, I encourage you to celebrate the Passover with your friends and neighbors. Our family has been doing this for the last six years and have used the celebration as a way of sharing the gospel of Christ in a fun and non-threatening manner. For more information on how you can celebrate your own Passover Seder, see the related pages below.

References

1. The entire story can be read in the book of Exodus

2. See Exodus chapter 12.

3. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (Exodus 12:21-23)

4. The Passover lamb was still sacrificed in the first century, as indicated in the New testament - Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. (Luke 22:7)

5. Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36) For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14)

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. (Revelation 12:11)

6. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. (Exodus 12:5)

7. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

8. "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. (Exodus 12:46)

9. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. (Psalm 34:20)

10. The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs;... For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken." (John 19:32, 33, 36)

11. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

12. On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel." (John 12:12-13) And most of the multitude spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. (Matthew 21:8)

13. saying, "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (Luke 19:38)

And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9)

14. And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9) And those who went before, and those who followed after, were crying out, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11:9-10)

15. Simon Maccabeus entered the Akra at Jerusalem after its capture, “with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a great enemy out of Israel” (1 Maccabees 13:51) (see also 2 Maccabees 10:7).

16. And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it, (Luke 19:41)

17. And about the ninth hour [3:00 p.m.] Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"... And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (Matthew 27:46, 50) (see also Mark 15:34-37, Luke 23:44-46)

18. When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

19. And behind the second veil, there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, (Hebrews 9:3)

20. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, (Matthew 27:51) And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (Mark 15:38) the sun being obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. (Luke 23:45)

21. Acts chapter 2.

22. And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23-24)

23. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

24. And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, "Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:24)

25. And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. (John 19:40)

26. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

27. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:16)

28. "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. (Zechariah 12:10)

29. For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay. (Psalm 16:10)

O LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. (Psalm 30:3)

But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me. Selah. (Psalm 49:15)

I shall not die, but live, And tell of the works of the LORD. (Psalm 118:17)

30. And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; (Luke 22:15)

31. "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

"And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. (Ezekiel 11:19-20)

"I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, (Isaiah 42:6)

32. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:26-28)

33. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you. (Luke 22:20)

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