"Comparing Scars "
By Dr. Mickey Anders
First Christian Church
Pikeville, Kentucky
February 11, 2001
Text: Genesis 45:3-11,15
One of the most memorable movie scenes in history comes from Steven Spielberg's 1975 movie, Jaws. Robert Shaw plays the rough, narrow-eyed shark fisherman named Quint; Richard Dreyfuss is the young oceanographer, Hooper; and Sheriff Brody is actor Roy Scheider. Roy Scheider has the most famous line when he first sees the huge size of the shark - "You're going to need a bigger boat!"
In Roger Ebert's review, he agrees, "Brody is right, they need a bigger
boat. Quint's boat is terrifyingly inadequate, leaky, with an engine that
produces clouds of black smoke, a bridge that seems designed to topple
a crew member overboard, and a harpooning platform jutting out from the
bow so that a man standing on it looks like an appetizer on a kebab stick."
(http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2000/08/082001.html)
Arguably the best scene in the movie is the nighttime scene in the galley, where the men drink apricot brandy and Quint and Hooper compare scars.
Quint asks Hooper to put a hand under his cap and feel knot there. He says, "That came from Rocker Nolan in a St. Patty's Day brawl in Boston."
Then Hooper shows a big scar on his arm and says, "Moray Eel! Bit right through my wet suit."
Quint rolls up his sleeve to show a mangled elbow he says he got in the semi-finals of an arm wrestling contest in Low Key Bar in San Francisco.
Hooper pulls up his pants leg, revealing another scar, and says, "Bull Shark! Scraped me when I was taking samples."
Quint matches the leg scar with one he attributes to a thresher shark tail.
Both men finally burst into laughter, and Hooper says, "Okay. I've got one, the crème de la crème! Right here," pointing at his chest. "Mary Ellen Moffatt - She broke my heart!"
Many of us could participate in a contest of scars, but perhaps with less dramatic boasts. What kind of scars do you have? Perhaps you can make a mental inventory. Maybe you have scars from surgery or from an accident. We could have our own contest of comparing scars.
I have a scar on my wrist where my cousin Danny accidentally hit me with a hoe. And I still have scars on my legs from a severe burn when I was in elementary school. I spent a long time in the hospital, and my mother tells me that I screamed a lot when they changed the bandages each day. Thankfully, I don't remember any of the pain associated with those scars. And my body healed those wounds without any effort on my part.
But Hooper's joke about Mary Ellen Moffatt breaking his heart has the ring of truth to it. My emotional scars are much more difficult to heal. I still vividly remember the pain associated with many of the emotional scars I have. Those scars don't show on the outside, but those inside scars are a lot harder to heal.
Do you have emotional scars too? Take another mental inventory. Are those scars healed?
In our text for today, Joseph overcomes a tragic emotional scar. You will recall the story, how as a young man Joseph was the favorite of his father, as symbolized in his special coat. If his relationship with his father was great, his relationship with his brothers was equally bad. They despised him, and even more so when he told of a dream in which he was superior to all his brothers.
Imagine Joseph's trauma when his brothers captured him, threatened to kill him and finally sold him into slavery. For decades he lived with the painful memory of his brothers hate-filled act.
In fact, all of the members of this family were wounded and scarred from that incident so long ago. The brothers had watched their father grieve over the death of his son. They bore their terrible secret all these years.
But now a severe famine has gripped the entire area, including Egypt. But Egypt was saved from the ravages of the famine thanks to the wise administration of Joseph who had risen to power because he had rightly interpreted the Pharaoh's dream about the famine. Now Egypt had become the breadbasket for the world.
Among those who came to Egypt to purchase grain were Joseph's brothers, who did not recognize him. It had been decades since they had sold that younger brother into slavery in a fit of jealousy.
If ever there were one with reason to hold a grudge, it would be Joseph. And now he has in his power the very brothers who so took advantage of his youth. It was the perfect opportunity to attempt to avenge the wrong done to him.
Instead, the Bible tells us that Joseph and his brothers reconciled. Through a series of tests, Joseph discovers that his brothers have become men of honor and compassion. And finally, Joseph reveals himself as their kin. The concluding verse of our text says, "And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him" (v. 15).
Many of us can identity with the kind of wounds that Joseph had, but our wounds just don't seem to heal. Some of us nurture our wounds. We pick at them so that they won't heal. Some of us cannot forgive those who have hurt us. Some of us cannot forget the pain and humiliation. Some of us refuse to let go of old hurts.
But not Joseph! How does he do it? How did he manage to heal such a terrible wound and seek reconciliation? I think we can find several keys to the healing of his wounds.
First, Joseph focused on God's power instead of his pain. Looking back over his life, he sees that God has managed in a truly mysterious way to bring good out of evil, using even the terrible act of his jealous brothers to put him eventually in this important position in the land of Egypt. Joseph concludes, "God sent me before you to preserve life… God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors" (vv. 5, 7).
Second, Joseph focused on God's love instead of his brother's hatred. Instead of looking at the cruel, heartless and hateful act on the part of his brothers, Joseph looks at the graceful, heartfelt and loving act on the part of God, a God who wanted Joseph to prosper and save his family from famine. It is only God who brings healing. "Even though you intended to do harm to me," Joseph tells his brothers, "God intended it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
Third, Joseph focused on transformation instead of retaliation. One thing that both the Old and the New Testaments teach us is that God has the power to transform human evil into divine good. God used the slavery of Joseph to save a family. In the New Testament, God transforms the death of Jesus into the salvation of the world.
And we have a fourth option that was not available to Joseph. We can focus on the One who was scarred for us. Jesus was scarred too, you know. John 20 describes his resurrection appearance before disciples where he showed them his scars. Like Joseph, Jesus had scars from his life experience. And God also transformed Jesus' scars into reconciliation, but this time it was the reconciliation of the world to God.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he could have chosen a body without the scars, but he didn't. Like Hooper and Quint in Jaws, Jesus was proud of his scars. It is by his wounds that we are healed.
In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Phillip Yancey says, "I take hope in Jesus' scars. From the perspective of heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe - the crucifixion - Easter turned into a memory. Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heartache over lost friends and loved ones, all these will become memories, like Jesus' scars. Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth. We will have a new start, an Easter start."
Fulton Sheen once wrote, "Scarred men come for healing only to scarred Hands! Only a Risen Jesus with scars can understand our hearts. This is not an age of wars, but an age of scars! We all have scars! Everybody! Scars on bodies - the wounds of war; scars on souls - the wounds of godlessness. Scars of hate, fear, anxiety, melancholy, bitterness! Either scars fighting against Thee or scars fighting with Thee! Scars born of the offensive against Love; scars born of the defense of Love!
"Come, Jesus of the Scars, I am not strong, until Thy pierced Hand clasps my own. I am not brave till I see the pledge of victory on Thy Heart . . . And I am not free, till Thou dost bind me to Thy Scars!" (Fulton J. Sheen, "The Victory That Overcomes the World," quoted by John Maynard, PRCL)
Edward Shillito, shattered by the carnage of the First World War, found
comfort in the fact that Jesus was able to show his disciples the scars
of his crucifixion. It inspired him to write his poem 'Jesus of the
Scars':
If we have never sought, we seek thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-marks on thy brow,
We must have thee, O Jesus of the scars.
The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by thy scars we know thy grace.
If, when the doors are shut, thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of thine;
We know today what wounds are, have no fear;
Show us thy scars, we know the countersign.
The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak;
They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.
I think that scene from the movie, Jaws, is so compelling because there's something within all of us that needs to show off our scars. We love to try to one-up one another with our scars:
"Look! I got this one from a hoe wielded by my cousin Danny!"
"Okay, here are my burn scars from elementary school."
Someone else might add:
"Here are my scars from open heart surgery."
"Look! Ruptured appendix - 1995!"
But then someone like Hooper opens up the category of invisible scars.
"Mary Ellen Moffat - She broke my heart."
"Divorce - 1992."
"Death of a spouse - 1997"
"Public shame and humiliation - 1990."
"Vicious gossip - 1999."
Then Joseph adds, "Sold into slavery. Estranged from my family. But reconciled in Egypt!"
But suddenly there is standing before us the Risen One. He has
scars too. He shows us the nail prints in his hands, the thorn marks
on his head, the place where the spear plunged into his side. Then
he says, "Scars of love. The price I paid for you. Because
of these wounds, all your scars can heal!"