Easter Week Devotional Three: "He showed them his hands and his side."

Easter Week Devotional Three: He showed them his hands and his side

by Tom Hawkes

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19-20).

Jesus appears Sunday evening to his disciples, who, having heard of his empty tomb and sightings, have assembled together. 

His first words to them are, “Peace be with you.” Certainly, they needed to hear these words. With the events of the past few days, they were deeply stirred and had little peace. Even his appearing to them would not instantly bring them peace! Questions, wonder, disbelief, and confusion, but not immediately peace. 

He speaks peace to them, and as is always true of God, his words have power. He brought peace among them. 

Then he shows his wounds. What an interesting act. Why does he not first give a hug, or a sermon, or ask for a meal? Why show his wounds? 

Because his wounds prove so much. His wounds prove that it is indeed him, Jesus, and not some other. His wounds prove that he had actually died, and if dead, was then truly raised from the dead. 

His wounds prove the hope of a bodily resurrection. He is no apparition, no ghostly being, but a flesh and blood man. As he rises bodily, so, too, will we rise and live forever in our new bodies. There is no better proof of this hope than the man with wounds standing before them.

His wounds prove his love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Spoken just days earlier, they see the reality of those words in his wounds. These wounds Jesus will wear for eternity, for they are part of his perfection, intrinsic to his beauty, the One Mediator Between God and Men. C.H. Spurgeon proclaims: “Christ wears these scars in his body in heaven as his ornaments. The wounds of Christ are his glories, they are his jewels and his precious things.”

Seeing this, and understanding at least some of the significance, the disciples were glad. How could they not be? Their Teacher and Friend had defeated death, the devil, sin, and hell for them. Here he stands before them, glorious wounds, and all. O, those glorious wounds! “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). His wounds are our healing, our hope, our way to heaven. 

Those wounds in his flesh are a permanent reminder and cause of peace. Those wounds prove that we will live forever, really live, in real bodies like his, forgiven, loved, and accepted by God. In this world, in troubles, we do well to see Jesus as he is portrayed here for the eyes of faith, raised, with his wounds. Wounds that say to us forever: “Peace be with you.”