Day 19 – Healing

Communion at Gowanbank - Church weekend away

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20: 19-22)

There has been a tendency in the indexes of church hymn books to separate Good Friday and Easter. When that happens, suffering/death and victory/risen life are easily separated too. If there are no marks on the risen Jesus, then resurrection is only for the unmarked. But when we see him, his hands open towards us, scarred, we may dare to celebrate that we are risen too. This is our humanity that we see before us. In his wounds we recognise our own. Christ is one with us, sharing and bearing our story into new life.

(Extract from Dust & Glory by David Runcorn)

Prayer

Come to us, risen Lord. Find us where we are locked in with our fears, elaborately guarded with bolts, chains and secure defences. Seek us with the story we have heard but are still unable to understand or trust.

Remember Today

Those who seek Christ’s healing touch in our communities – the sick, the vulnerable, the frightened; those locked down alone and lonely.