The Wounded Jesus

Every Easter we gather to celebrate the risen Jesus and his decisive victory over sin and death. But if we’re honest, if Jesus’ resurrection was, in fact, God’s victory over sin and death, then why does it seem like sin and death still hold dominion in the world? 

This is a legitimate question that has been asked, to some degree or another, by Christians throughout church history. But it carries a few assumptions that are worth addressing. 

First, there is the assumption that if something as magnificent as the resurrection of Jesus occurred, then the world should’ve changed as soon as the stone was rolled away from the tomb. But the earliest Christians did not view the resurrection as an overnight fix to the world’s problems. They viewed it as the first part of an unfolding story. 

Paul alludes to this when he describes what happened to Jesus as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20) In Jewish agricultural terms, firstfruits were the first part of a future harvest. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus was the first stage of God’s ongoing project of making things right in the world, and it’s the Church that will move it forward to its completion. 

The other problem with this question is that it wrongly assumes that sin is only systemic, existing within the political, social, and economic structures of the world. But this is only one half of the sin problem. 

Scot McKnight says, “Justice matters, but it’s not the whole story. Because the kingdom is more than just fixing what’s out there.” 

In other words, systemic sin doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s built by people who reject the light of Christ and lose themselves along the way—whose hearts are pulled away from goodness and love, towards disordered impulses like deception and violence. What starts off on the inside is projected outward, shaping systems that end up shaping others. And it’s this pattern that Jesus confronted first in the moments following his resurrection. 

John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus could’ve made the trek back to Pilate’s headquarters to vindicate himself. He could’ve reappeared before the Sanhedrin to show off what God had done and to prove them wrong. But instead, somewhere nearby his disciples were hiding. Their world was shattered. Emotions were running high. Some of them still had revolutionary aspirations (Acts 1:6). A cocktail of pain and pressure was brewing and it was into that space that Jesus chose to appear. A space where, if left alone without the presence of God, could escalate in the wrong direction and turn them into the very thing they were hiding from. 

Jesus interrupts this potential chaos by speaking peace and showing them the scars on his body, a sign of God’s solidarity with the wounded. He then sends them out, not with a sword to overthrow Rome, but with a new Spirit and the gift of radical forgiveness. It was a new way of being human, where love, and not sin, had the final word. 

This is still the call for us today. To join the wounded Jesus in the brokenness. To reject the patterns that devastate from within and escalate outward. And to offer peace, love, and forgiveness. This is how the victory of Jesus’ resurrection continues to unfold.

House Church Discussion Questions

1) Has the brokenness of the world ever caused you to question the resurrection of Jesus or some other aspect of our faith?

2) How has your view of sin changed over the years?

3) Where have you recently noticed the escalation of sin?

4) Where does joining the wounded Jesus look like for you currently?