Perfection

I finally broke down and bought the book, The Hunger Games. It is simply written, fast-paced and incredibly violent. But I must say, I was captivated to the end. And it was the end that fascinated me the most.

The story is about the future, when a demented government has taken over this country and divided it into twelve districts. In order to keep control of the districts, the government enforces and once-a-year tribute called The Hunger Games. One boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are chosen from each of the twelve districts. They are dressed up and paraded before the cameras like celebrities, then they are helicoptered to an amphitheater where the world watches as they are forced to battle to the death. Young people are killing each other for sport.

The boy and girl from district 12 fall for each other and the crowds love it. When the two of them are left, they decide to commit suicide together rather than have one of them die. And the government relents, letting both of them live.

Then the most interesting thing happens. The boy and girl are drugged and brought to a kind of treatment facility. By the time that the games are over, they are scarred and bloody. The boy has a gash so deep in his leg, he does not know if he will ever walk again. The girl has a huge cut on her forehead and multiple bruises and burns. But in this treatment facility, all their wounds are treated until they completely disappear. By the time they are released, their skin is picture perfect, like a newborn baby. They are paraded in front of the cameras as if they were not hurt by any of it. They are made perfect, as if nothing had happened at all.

Did you know that, when you look at a picture of a celebrity or movie star, more often than not, you are looking at a mirage? The stars are airbrushed, colored over by impressive computer technology. They are made to look perfect: no wrinkles, no cellulite, no blemishes or bruises, just perfect and flawless. That is what we all want to look like, right? So why not help the stars out a bit, after all, they have to do this for a living. Let's help them be beautiful.

When Jesus appeared in the resurrected form, he came to us with scars. I find that strange, don't you? God could raise a person from death to life, surely God
could have fixed up all those messy wounds. So it must have been intentional, for Jesus to return to us with scars. Why?

When Jesus appears, he is recognized by his wounds. It is not his face that the disciples look at, or his voice that they hear. Jesus is identified by his scars.

When Thomas misses the first appearance, he tells his friends that he will not believe that Jesus has returned until he touches his wounds, until his puts his finger in the cuts and feels them, with his own hands. He does not say that he needs to look at Jesus' face or hear his voice, no he must touch the scars. That is how he will know that Christ is alive.

So God kept Jesus' wounds. Because they were necessary so that people could know him. It is our wounds that make us who we are.

I also believe that God was trying to tell us something. God was trying to tell us that resurrection is very different from perfection.

We Americans find perfection beautiful. To be without blemish, without wrinkle or scar, this is beautiful. But God does not see us this way. No, for God, it is precisely our wounds which make us beautiful. They are signs of the pain and suffering that we have had to endure, they mark our greatest lessons in life, they shape us until we are marked as Christ's own forever.

Did you really think that God found perfection beautiful? Perfection is incomplete. No, Jesus shows us that the Resurrected Christ was marked by his wounds. His wounds marked his identity. They were good.

When you look in the mirror, consider the fact that God may find you more and more beautiful the more marked and wrinkled and scarred you are by life. Look at yourself. Your scars make you who you are, and God finds them beautiful.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead