The Wounds and Glory of Alexander
When the thigh of his father Philip had been pierced by a spear in battle with the Triballians, and Philip, although he escaped with his life, was vexed with his lameness, Alexander said, ‘Be of good cheer, father, and go on your way rejoicing, that at each step you may recall your valour.’… How, then, think you, did he glory in his own wounds, remembering by each part of his body affected a nation overcome, a victory won, the capture of cities, the surrender of kings? He did not cover over nor hide his scars, but bore them with him openly as symbolic representations, graven on his body, of virtue and manly courage.
–Plutarch, “Alexander”[1]
Of all the virtues of Alexander the Great, I find his magnanimity and nobility in the face of suffering most inspiring. Like Alexander, many noble citizens of ancient Rome also bore their battle scars as a badge of honor, and, if the situation arises, their scars would serve as one of their strongest qualifications for high office and best defence against character assassination.
In ancient China, suffering is regarded as necessary in the formation of great men of destiny. As philosopher Mengzi (孟子) writes, “When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings, thereby stimulating his mind, strengthening his character, and supplying his deficiencies.”[2]
The Wounds and Glory of Jesus
According to the Gospel of John, Jesus bore the scars of the Crucifixion after His Resurrection. When other disciples told Thomas, one of the twelve, that they had seen the risen Jesus, Thomas replied, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Later Jesus appeared to him, and told him to reach His wounds with his hand,upon which Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”
There are different ways to interpret the story of Doubting Thomas. I tend to accept it as a historical account with spiritual significance: What made Thomas, who presumably was not present at Jesus’ Crucifixion and definitely not His Resurrection, suddenly acknowledge Jesus as divine upon touching His wound?
Firstly, if Thomas didn’t believe other disciples’ reports about the Resurrection unless he saw Jesus himself, it is unlikely that he believed their reports about the Crucifixion. So he couldn’t be certain that Jesus actually died, and it is unlikely that he would immediately believe Jesus rose from the dead when He appeared to them. Secondly, even if Thomas were convinced of Jesus bodily resurrection because he personally witnessed Jesus’ resurrecting Lazarus, he would not have immediately believed Jesus was divine. As a Jew, he would have acknowledged that God had worked a miracle in the man Jesus and given God the glory instead, just as the Jews did on several occasions upon witnessing the miracles performed by Jesus.
I’m inclined to think that, when Thomas reached out to Jesus’ wounds, he didn’t touch any ordinary wounds, but wounds of such extraordinary nature that they convinced Thomas of Jesus’ divinity. Just as Jesus’ body was transformed from a lowly and corruptible body to a glorious and incorruptible spiritual body, so his wounds were transformed into spiritual badges of glory, living memorials of his triumphs over sin and suffering, his battles and victories over the powers of darkness, and his victory over death, one for all and once for all. Jesus was glorified through His sufferings, death and resurrection, and when Thomas reached His wounds, he came into personal contact with His divine glory.
but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Hebrews 2:9-10
In the final resurrection, followers of Jesus will bear the wounds of all their earthly sufferings, emotional, physical or spiritual sufferings, upon their resurrected and spiritual body, just as Jesus does. They will serve as glorious living memorials of the wondrous works God has accomplished for them, much as a master artisan, by executing many difficult and delicate cuts, transforms raw stones into beautiful gemstones.
Suffering is temporary, but glory is eternal.
References:
- ^1.Plutarch. Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar. Trans. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998; Perseus Digital Library. Accessed September 14, 2018. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0243.
- ^2.Mengzi. “Gaozi II.” Chinese Text Project. Accessed September 14, 2018. https://ctext.org/mengzi/gaozi-ii.
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This post is the fifth installment in a series on “Suffering and Christian Hope”. The other posts in the series are: