Turning to Zechariah 13:6-9, we find a scene described of which the likeness to that in John 20:cannot be considered accidental. The question is the same-the identification of Christ, this time in His royal glory; and the inquiry, "What are these wounds in Thy hands?" with the answer, " Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends," are so profoundly suitable to the occasion of our Lord's second presentation to His people that one marvels and worships to read .them as written full five centuries before His first coming to suffer that wounding at their hands. Wonderfully, too, the passage closes with the greeting of restored relationship that follows on His recognition by signs such' as these,-"And I shall say, It is My people;" and they shall say, "The Lord, my God!"Here, then, we discover the solemn truth that the wounds of Jesus' will, at His coming in His kingdom, prove His title to the homage of the repentant nation at whose hands He received them-a truth further taught in the previous chapter, where the familiar words occur, "And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn," etc.;a word of prophecy repeated in almost similar terms by the same Spirit six centuries later, and after the piercing had taken place:"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of Him." (Rev. 1:7.)
With this also agree the strange words of the prophet Habakkuk, who (if we may accept the marginal reading of chapter 3:4,) describes the coming of God and the Holy One thus:," His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise; and His brightness was as the light, and He had bright beams out of His side;" that is to say, that not only will the wounds of Jesus be His identification, commanding the obedience, submission, and worshiping love of His nation, but those very wounds will be themselves His highest glory, and from them, as from the stricken thunder-cloud, will issue forth " bright beams " of light, to the joy of His reconciled people, and the confusion and destruction of His enemies.
If, then, the wounds of Jesus-kept open, so to speak, in our love-feasts from week to week, through all the ages of this present interval-shall fulfill so glorious a function at His coming back to the earth to reign over Israel, can we be surprised to find that in the still further future, at His assuming universals way, His wounds will again prove His title to that throne of glory?
Opening at Revelation v, this scene is portrayed -portrayed in purpose so divine, in effect so dramatic, in language so wonderful, as to confound, overpower, and yet inspire and elevate, our minds as often as we read it. For there it is told how, , when every creature in heaven, in earth, and under the earth had failed to qualify to claim the title-deeds of universal sovereignty,-when the eyes of the se£r flowed with bitter tears to think that earth's long hopes of redemption from her cruel subjugation were to be disappointed,-a Lamb, a little Lamb, a little wounded Lamb, a Lamb as it had been slain, stood out in the midst of that glittering circle of glory, and, by right and title only of those visible wounds, took the book from off the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and heard the joyful acclamations of all the great wide universe, which had now at last beheld its Redeemer.
Such, briefly, are the tremendous issues that have turned and shall turn upon the wounds of Christ, which in, our commemorative supper we love to discover symbolically shown forth. May it not be that hereafter, when faith shall change to sight, we shall make the personal proof of their identifying power which one has sought to convey in the beautiful lines that follow:-
" But how shall I then know Thee
Amid those hosts above?
What token true shall show me
The object of my love?
Thy wounds, Thy wounds, Lord Jesus,-
These deep, deep wounds will tell
The sacrifice that frees us
From self, and death, and hell!"
(G.F.T.)