Marks

“Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” “L et no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. ”

The Christian faith holds out two promises to believers about this life. In this life you will suffer , and in this life you will be comforted . It is certain that the faithful will enjoy eternal life in bliss— heaven is a place where nothing bad or unpleasant will come for us. There every tear will be wiped away. But what about this life? Is it true that the Christian life will comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable? Can such a contradiction stand?

Jesus Himself promises us both experiences. He promised relief from the pain of this life: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38 And He promised pain in this life: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me… the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Mark 8:31, 34 “Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Mark 13:12-13 “They shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.” Mark 13:9

Can we just choose to be comforted and leave out those unpleasant aspects of Christianity? Are those just ancient people trying to make sense of the hardship of life back then? Aren't we saved from that? We ask the saints, and there is no help there for our attempt to escape pain. St. Paul tells us in today's Epistle that “ I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” I don't think even the most Serendipity Precious Moments Bible version can retranslate that into a pleasant experience for Paul. He's suffering. And who could be a better Christian than Paul? Just what were these marks? And what did they mean?

The words translated into our English Bibles as “mark” are many, and often mean different things than we are looking for. The King James translates many Hebrew words into “ mark ” that mean, variously: to appoint, consider, hedge about with thorns, behold, consider, discern, acknowledge, or comprehend . And from several Greek words meaning pay attention to, look at, and the Evangelist Mark. But when St. Paul refers to the Marks of Jesus, he uses Stigma , a word for a symbol cut into flesh for recognition of ownership or scar of service, a brand . Another word denoting the same thing is used several times in Revelation for God's seal in the foreheads of His own people , and also the mark of the beast on the servants of Satan. The Marks of Jesus in St. Paul were physical scars that showed he belonged to Jesus. What were they?

Paul occasionally mentioned these in his Epistles, the lashings, stoning, beating with rods and even an impairment of his sight , causing him to have to write in very large letters, not having reading glasses as I do. These were more than scars: he was proud of them and considered them holy, giving witness to his radical identification with our Lord. Can this kind of radical identification be known today?

Look around. I have never seen so many tattoos on people than I do today, and they mean something and mark the wearer as a certain kind of person. The numbers 14 and 18, in numerals or dots, mean a person is either a Norteno or a Soreno , Mexican gangs formed in prisons from northern or southern California. Some tattoos identify a person as a sex slave, or a killer, or one in bondage. A tear tattooed at the corner of the eye means this man has killed someone. Nice . I saw some of the most artistic tattoos once, when walking through the yard at Vacaville State Prison.

The Scriptures actually speak to this: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:28 Why God makes that demand is pretty obvious. Earrings worn by men have meaning, too. An earring was given to a slave who voluntarily chose to remain with the master after his debt had been paid. Taking marks on our bodies is a way to bond ourselves to something—there's not much more permanent ID than a brand in the flesh. It sounds cool to some. I've never gone in for it. A stigma is a permanent mark. I know a pastor in Vacaville who, having spent many years in prison in his earlier life, has tats all over his body. He has to wear long sleeves in most situations now, not to offend other Christians with the messages of his former life.

When a person is made new in Christ, such marks are an embarrassment, but the marks of Jesus should never be so. Nevertheless, you have this stigma: Jesus' own wounds have bitten into your skin and the cross has left its splinters in your back. Are you aware of it? You've been wounded by the world, yet God gave you over to it. The ancient prophet Hosea understood this. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” 6:1-3 This was one of the prophecies of Jesus' resurrection. And it is ours also. The Lord has torn us, but He will heal us. He has smitten us, but will bind us up. What kind of God does this?

St. Paul predicted the infliction of pain by the world; “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12 St. Peter encouraged suffers: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” 1 Peter 4:1 Another Epistles has it this way: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Hebrews 12:11 So there is a reason for suffering. St. Paul reminds us, “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Cor. 11:32 But we may suffer for others as well, and not for our own punishment: “this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.” 1 Peter 2:19

Suffering has a meaning. It may mean we have been bad and need correction. But it may also mean that we have been good and are now identifying with the Lord Jesus, taking up His burden, carrying His cross for a time. If this is the case, the marks of our suffering, whether visible to our eyes or not, are visible to heaven. God sees our scars and He remembers. Jesus encouraged His followers, not to avoid pain, but to understand it and endure it, for “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

If we worry about our needs for comfort, safety, health and welfare, the next meal or what we can wear, we are no different than anyone else. But Christ called us to a higher life. He assured us that we physical creatures have needs and God is aware of them and He cares. He cares for plants and birds, why not humans? Because we pollute? Jesus' instruction is to seek first God and His way of life. Seek the life of God and live it, embrace it, value it above all other things. In this way, suffering loss will not be required to loosen your grip on this world, nor will it bite you so badly when it happens. Nevertheless, God will take care of you. For even if you die from the brutality of others, from starvation, from sickness, from accidental cause: whenever a Christian dies, it is glory. He or she is marked for heaven, like a luggage tag that directs it to one city or another. You want your luggage to say, “HEAVEN.”

In one of the most comforting passages of the New Testament, St. Paul says: “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:36-39 Don't separate the blessings, the gentle promises, the words of comfort and encouragement in the Bible from the prophecies of pain, rejection, grief and long endurance of suffering. These go together, but for another purpose than what we first thought. Pain and pleasure mark us. The marks of pleasure often are a depleted life. Pleasure alone cannot make us Christ's own. He came and suffered greatly. If we suffer, we do it for others' sake, and for His sake. And when we get through it, and even while going through it, His smile is all we need.

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