The Easter Question: Hast Thou No Scar, No Wound?

Leading up to Easter, I’ve been thinking about this question for weeks now.

Hast thou no scar? No wound?

A poem by missionary Amy Carmichael lodged those few words in my mind decades ago when I read a biography about Amy’s life. A missionary from Ireland to India for more than 50 years, Amy never took a furlough, meaning she never went back to her homeland. Instead, she started an orphanage that saved countless young girls (and later young boys) from prostitution associated with Hindu religious practices.

Bedridden from an injury the last 20 years of her 83 years of life, Amy devoted those years to her writing and to administration of the sanctuary she had created called Dohnavur. This poem reveals Amy’s deep understanding of the gospel.

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

It’s safe to say that Amy Carmichael had wounds, her own, as well as the wounds she carried for others. She lived acquainted with suffering and grief. Like Jesus.

What’s suffering got to do with it?

Isaiah 53 graphically describes the death of Jesus on the cross. Isaiah’s prophecy pictures “the man of sorrows” wounded and pierced for our transgressions, the One led like a lamb to slaughter, the One who opened not his mouth either to defend himself or save himself because “it was the LORD’s will to crush him.”

The New Testament amplifies the meaning of Jesus’ suffering, adding that in their lives followers of Jesus will suffer too. “A servant is not greater than his master.” John 15:20

What personal suffering looks like varies as much as fingerprints. The fact that you and I suffer helps us to identify with the suffering of others.

The Bible’s message helps me see wounded people everywhere.

You and I see behaviors. God sees wounds.

God with us (Immanuel), Jesus came to identify personally with our sorrows and suffering. Jesus chose to suffer for our sins. Jesus bore the penalty for Sin on the Cross.

Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.

The resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday demonstrates God’s love while at the same time His judgment of Sin. Jesus made atonement for our sins as the only acceptable sacrifice to Holy God.

Sacrifice: At-one-ment with God made possible. Life and relationship and peace with God through Jesus Christ. Redeeming Love. Wounds validated.

The Cross lets me see my wounds differently.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

 For he grew up before him like a young plant,

    and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

    and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

    yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

    so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

    and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

    stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

    and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

    he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

    make many to be accounted righteous,

    and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

    and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

I have lots of scars on my body. But it’s the wounds no one can see that God tends to.

And because of the ways God has met me, I now meet other walking wounded differently.

I can see a bazillion footnotes to His story and give thanks for Easter.