New, glorious, transformed, immortal…and yet there is something that may seem odd even to believers: the Lord of Glory who has defeated death is still wounded. Doesn’t his defeat of death and his new, glorious form exclude such displays of weakness? If he is so glorious, why does he have the wounds? Like every aspect of his existence, the answer is that those wounds are for us. ...
Yet if this were all the wounds were for, it would seem that the Lord might well lose his wounds once all those who knew him during his earthly journey were convinced. Perhaps he could have done an act of miraculous healing/divine plastic surgery before he ascended into Heaven. And yet there is no record of him having done so. And the visions given to John in the Book of Revelation indicate that he saw a “Lamb, standing as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6). This seems a pretty clear sign that the marks of the Lord’s death remain. Indeed, Augustine says in his treatise on the Lord’s resurrection, “I believe our Lord’s body to be in heaven, such as it was when he ascended into heaven.”
Read Full Article »