Lockdown Day 18: THE IMPERFECT CHRIST

The paradox of the Christian faith is illuminated over Easter more than any other time. It is the tension of simultaneously living a life of being crucified with Christ, and at the same time understanding death in the context of His resurrection. That is: the more we die to ourselves, the more the power of life can flow through us.

In John 20: 19 we get a vivid description of what the resurrected Christ looks like. The disciples were the first to behold the glory of the resurrected Christ. And, surprise-surprise, the picture they saw was not the children’s Bible image of light shining from His face and a perfectly restored body. No, on the contrary, “He showed them his scars – His hands and His side” (verse 20), and they were glad. The glory that radiates from the resurrected Christ is reflected through the scars of redemption. It was the seals of His suffering. His appearance of imperfection provides proof of His divinity and hope for all who live in an imperfect world. It also provides a template for all who seek to obtain a Christ consciousness:

Yes, of course, Christ is perfectly God, perfectly pure, perfectly holy, perfectly loving, perfectly righteous, and perfectly just. But bearing the scars of the cross in His body, He chose to be seen ‘imperfect’ in His appearance as a reminder to all who seek a Saviour.

I realize anew the sin of seeking Christ only in perfection – only in healing, only in release, only in success, and only when God satisfies our needs. The joy that a crucified Christ offers to a COVID-19 world is not the perfection it desires, but the solidarity of a compassionate Saviour who is able to identify with our brokenness. He is transfigured into perfect imperfection.

The Christ-message of a transformed believer is this:

His perfect redemption is revealed through His imperfect body.

Our perfect joy is received through His imperfect resurrection.

Let’s take a moment to pause. Do we seek perfection, or do we seek the scars of redemption, obtained on the cross and revealed through resurrection?