A Sermon on How Christ Is Wounded By Christians

Years ago I saw a portrait by John Everett Millais in an exhibition of pre-Raphael artists. Millais was a famous English painter. In 1850 he painted a famous picture entitled The Carpenter’s Shop. It is a lovely painting, and an intriguing one. It is filled with all kinds of symbolism. It shows the carpenter shop in Nazareth. Joseph and Mary are there, and so are Elizabeth and John the Baptist. In the center the young Jesus, who looks to be about 10 years old, has wounded his hand and it is bleeding. Some of the blood has dropped onto his bare feet. Mary is shown kneeling beside him to comfort him. Through the open door can be seen a flock of sheep in the distance.

Now let me read our text. It is from the obscure book in the Old Testament from the prophet Zechariah. It is the text for Millais’ portrait: "And one shall say unto Him, what are these wounds in Thine hands? Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of a friend."

Early tradition has said that these words from the prophet referred to Christ. I have no doubt that Zechariah meant them for a specific situation. The oracle of the prophet made sense to the people who heard the oracle spoken. But the image of being wounded in the house of a friend is certainly relevant to Christ. This is the thought behind this text and illustrated in the picture. The worst injuries that we suffer are the injuries of love. The unwitting injuries of the good and kind -- these are the most painful!

Ask any person who has had a long experience of life. The things that hurt the most, the things that have pierced the heart, the wounds that are hardest to heal ... they are the injuries done by love!

Malice and hatred are hurtful. It is certainly painful to the subject of attack by people who are intentionally trying to find any weapon that will bring distress and suffering. I have occasionally been the subject of such slings and arrows. But they only touch us on the outside. Few people who have been active in life can avoid having foes. Believe me, they are disagreeable and unpleasant.

But the injuries of love -- they are the most sorrowful of all! Cold, thoughtless words on lips you have kissed ... ingratitude of a child for whom you have sacrificed and toiled ... indifference of those whom you have trusted ... lack of understanding from those whom you have given your friendship ... Ah, these are the unkindest cuts of all.

This expression, "the unkindest cut of all," comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. You remember that, by agreement, all of the Senate put a knife into Caesar, but for Caesar, it was to his close friend, Brutus, to whom he said, "This was the most unkindest cut of all."

This is the human tragedy -- expressed in the words: "And one shall say unto Him, what are these wounds on Thine hands? Then He shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of a friend."

Now, the purpose of this sermon is to see this tragedy in the life of Christ. Millais’ picture is a symbol of a painful truth. We know little of his childhood, but we know that his kinfolks had but little understanding of him and his mission. They even tried to restrain him. In the scripture that Mark read, Mark, the disciple, wrote, "When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for the people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’" How much does this reveal of his family’s opposition? Perhaps we can even say that the crucifixion began in his own home.

And look at the opposition of the religious people of his day. It is so sad to read: "He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him." [John 1:1] Some people are puzzled when they learn of the difference between Christ’s views and his later views about His ministry. Early in his ministry he told his disciples not to go to the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" In other words he told them to go to the people of their own countryand not even to the people of Samaria. Israel was the people of God. The Jews were the best people on earth. The Pharisees were men of real virtue. But these people -- the good people -- it was they from whom Christ received his wounds -- the cruellest wounds of all.

So Jesus began to see his mission in a new light: a mission to the world. He said of the Roman centurion that he had "a faith such as is not found in all Israel." [Luke 7:9] When Israel rejected him, certain Greeks came to say, "We would see Jesus." [John 12:21] It was a Samaritan woman who said, "Is this not the Christ?" [John 4:19] Pilate was a Gentile, and at least he treated him with respect , but in the court of the High Priest he is hit in the mouth. And on the cross the thief can love him, but the priests mock his dying anguish.

What are these wound in his hands?" "Those are the wounds with which he was wounded in the house of his friends."

Even his own disciples! They loved him and he loved them, but how often did they wound him. What a lack of sympathy they had for his aims. What incompetence they had to understand his thoughts. To one of them, he said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." [Luke 9:55], and to another he said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." [Matthew 16:23] And to a third he said, "You do not know me."

Or take John the Baptist. Jesus and John were cousins growing up together like Millas’ picture shows. When Jesus began his ministry, John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" But then, when John was in prison, he sends his disciples to inquire of Jesus and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" [Matthew 11:3]

"Whence the wounds?" "From the house of a friend!"

Now I want to talk about the cruelest wound which Christ has received. It is the church that continually inflicts the most hurtful pain to Christ. It began with the Judiazers. I want you to know about the Judiazers. They were Paul’s thorn in the flesh. They were Christians. Paul has some obscene references to the Judiazers. They were Christians who had never quite learned about what the principal theme of Jesus’ ministry was about. They wanted to make Christianity a matter of law rather than grace. They wanted Christians to sacrifice in the Temple every Sabbath. They were highly incensed when some members of the church didn’t observe the dietary law. They never quite understood the unmerited love, the divine love bestowed freely, that was at the heart of the good news of the gospel.

Judaizers are still inflicting wounds on our Christ. When an unholy priesthood is selling forgiveness for money ... when, as in the Inquisition, Christians would use torture to make men and women conform in their thinking about Christ ... when, as today in Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants throw bombs at little children in the name of Christ ... when, as in Bosnia, Serbian Christians killed and raped Muslims to try to annihilate them from the earth, ... when Christians make promises for divine healing by the power of Christ for a "love offering," ... when, as today, some Christians preach hate, exclusiveness, racial superiority, in the name of Christ ... When we see all of this, it is no wonder that Christ is wounded. It is no wonder that he bleeds ... in the house of a friend.

May I add, when the head of the most powerful Christian Church in the world declares that they have all the truth and only those subject to that church are going to find redemption ---then Christ is sorely wounded.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was right when, in 1850 he said, "The churches have killed their Christ."

The wonder is not that the Church has failed to conquer the world -- the wonder is that the Church has survived the follies of her children.

But now let us turn ever closer to home. Can we ourselves truly say that WE have not wounded the hands of our Christ?

Here is a Christian man. He is not unchaste, not a liar, not a drunkard, not a swearer. But there is not a day that goes by that he does not sin against a fellow child of God. He takes advantage of others by sharp dealing. He feels no responsibility for the miseries of the poor. He has never taken to heart Christ’s call for compassion, concern. His whole life has been lived in the first person singular: I, I, I,

This text has a special meaning for me. My father had a wounded hand. He was a machinist working on a cotton gin in Parkin, Arkansas, and there was an accident. At first we thought he would lose his hand, but through the skills of the doctors at Campbell’s Clinic, the hand was saved. But when I looked at my father’s hand it was worn, disfigured, out of shape. You only had to look at my father’s hands to know what his life had been -- hard working hands, sacrificial hands.

And I knew "those hands were wounded for me!"

Christ’s hands were wounded for me! -- and for you! Wounded for us -- but could it be wounded by us?

A Baby’s hands in Bethlehem

Were small and softly curled,

But held within their dimpled grasp

The hope of half the world.

A carpenter’s in Nazareth

Were skilled with tool and wood.

They laid the beams of simple homes

And found their labor good.

A Healer’s hands in Galilee

Were stretched to all who came

For Him to cleanse their hidden wounds

Or cure the blind and lame.

Long, long ago the hands of Christ

Were nailed upon a tree,

But still their holy touch redeems

The hearts of you and me.