On a TV game show, women were required to identify their partner only by looking at the men's bare feet, with all the rest of their body fully covered. It was a fun game and at the same it seemed to be not very easy for the women to figure out their own spouse only seeing bare feet. After staring at the bare feet of the men for a while, a couple of women pointed to the same man as their partner. But one woman indicated her spouse right away without any hesitation. Later the presider of the game show asked her how could she find him immediately? She replied that her spouse had a small scar on his foot.
I believe that almost everyone has their own scar(s) on their body. They may be small or large in size, or be deep inside the muscles or on the surface of the skin. They may be located in a hidden part or on a visible part of the body. No matter what size the scar is and how it came to be, each scar has its own story of how, when, what, where or by whom it happened. Of course I have many scars on my body. And whenever I see a scar, I think about the time that it happened and I can feel how painful it was and how hard it was to endure. Scars are clear reminders of painful things that happened in the past.
When Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, heard the Easter story from his fellow disciples, that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, and they told him they saw Jesus alive, he doubted it. He said to them unless he saw the marks of the nails in his hands and put his finger in the mark of the nails and the spear wound in his side, he would not believe his resurrection (John 20:25). Thomas has been considered the most intelligent person among many eye witnesses of Jesus resurrection, whose critical thinking requested forensic evidence to prove the risen Christ Jesus was exact the same man who was crucified on the cross. A week later when he met the risen Jesus who showed him the scars on his body, Thomas professed the most significant and profound doctrine in Christian history about Jesus saying, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Sometimes a reasonable doubt can be the best way to crystallize belief.
The risen Christ Jesus always carries the scars of nails in his hands and feet and the mark of the spear in his side in order to prove that he is the very same person who had been crucified on the cross. Only the one who has risen from dead with the scars on his body which were made on the cross, only that person can become the Messiah and Saviour who is able to save the whole world! Indeed the scars always tell the real story!
