How the Resurrection of Jesus Defeats Five Common Temptations In the Church (3/5)

2 Corinthians 3:18 - And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (ESV)

Beholding is becoming. Or in Paul’s inspired words, “Beholding the glory...being transformed into the same image.” Listen to the communal language, “And we all.” Easter requires a week of weeks to even come close to beholding the glory of the risen Lord. It is a great seasons to ask, “what is resurrected Lord transforming in the resurrection community as we behold him?” Here is the third of five common temptations in the church that the Lord is transforming.

Temptation Three: Erasing scars (Theology of Glory)

“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see” (Luke 24.39). “He showed them his hands and his side” (John 20.20). “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side’” (John 20.27). 

The resurrection of the body transforms scars, it doesn’t take them away. Our temptation is to present a successful spirituality. We manicure away our mistakes. We make up over our mishaps. We do plastic surgery on our past. Our temptation is to erase the evidence of our wounds. But in doing so we wound our witness. 

For Jesus, the cross isn’t an unfortunate detour on the way to his destiny or a problem in the way of his prosperity. The cross was the strategy. The cross is his strategy. The signs of the cross were not something to erase or to “get over.” They were the first thing to show off. Old Adam was ashamed of his naked wound. Not Jesus.

Saint Paul and Mater agree. Consider this dialogue from the Second Cars movie:

Mater: Oh, for a second there I thought you was trying to fix my dents. 

Holly Shiftwell: Yes, I was. 

Mater: Well then, no thank you. I don't get them dents buffed, pulled, filled or painted by nobody. They way too valuable. 

Holly Shiftwell: Your dents are valuable? Really? 

Mater: I come by each one of 'em with my best friend Lightning McQueen. I don't fix these. I wanna remember these dents forever.

Consider this reconstructed dialogue based on the Second Letter to the Corinthians (12.8-10):

Paul: Please Lord, take away this thorn in my flesh. 

Jesus: My grace is sufficient for you. 

Paul: I plead with you, take it away. 

Jesus: My grace is sufficient for you. 

Paul: Think of all I could do without this thorn. Please just take it away. 

Jesus: My power is made perfect in your weakness.

Recently Beth Moore wrote,

“God forgives our sins and casts them into the depths of the sea—a comfort and relief beyond words—but nonetheless, he does not mind me remembering those sins well. I never walk in front of a group without recalling the pit from which I was rescued and the rock from which I was hewn...God has delivered me from serious strongholds of sin and, if I stand, I stand by grace alone.” Christianity Today, April 2018 “My Five Keys to Accountability”

The Theologies of Glory are confident that God can only use virtue, prosperity, success, and victory to prove that he’s got the goods. The Theology of the Cross is confident that God can prove just as much, if not more, through scars. The vulnerability of the church, instead of our victories, might be the key to the closed doors we face in our suspicious culture. Our Lord, even in his resurrection, doesn’t hide his scars. Our world knows wounding too. Church, our scars are glorious grace places. 

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12.9-10