Are you a marked person?

MARKED
Galatians 6:14–18

You might be wondering—what do I mean by that? Let me explain.

If you wear a wedding ring, what does it say about you? It tells the world that you’ve committed your life to another person. If you bear a scar from surgery, what does that say? It marks you as someone who has endured suffering, and is perhaps more able to sympathise with others who suffer poor health.

All of us carry marks through life. Some are deliberately chosen, like a wedding ring. Others are the result of life’s wear and tear - like a scar from an operation. Some marks tell stories of poor choices; others reflect our finest moments of courage, sacrifice, and love.

The Apostle Paul saw himself as a marked man. He wrote to the Galatians, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” What were those marks? They were the visible and invisible signs of the suffering he endured for the sake of Christ: floggings, imprisonment, rejection, hunger, shipwreck, homelessness, and perhaps even a chronic illness.

Before we go further, let’s address a common misunderstanding: the belief that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Some imagine God as a strict accountant, rewarding virtue, punishing sin. But Jesus refuted this idea when He spoke of the man born blind, explaining that his condition was not due to sin, either his own or his parents'.

Paul helps us grasp the mystery and value of suffering. In his letter, he hints at poor eyesight - “See what large letters I write with my own hand” - and speaks of how the Galatians once wished they could give him their own eyes. He may have first arrived in Galatia while seriously ill, perhaps with malaria.

If God shielded the faithful from suffering, why did Paul suffer so deeply? And what of the Christian martyrs through the ages? Their witness teaches us: suffering is not a punishment from God. So where is God when good people suffer? Right beside them. Within them. God knows suffering intimately - He endured it on the Cross. He does not abandon us in our pain. His promise is not immunity from suffering, but companionship in it.

Paul drew strength from knowing that his Lord had also suffered. His own hardships were the direct result of his love for Christ. He didn’t resent this suffering or interpret it as abandonment. Rather, he saw it as a continuation of Christ’s suffering. When he was rejected, he remembered Christ’s rejection. When he was beaten, he thought of the Cross.

To love Christ deeply is to be marked by that love. And love, real love, always risks suffering. If you carry the wounded, you’ll get blood on your clothes. If you care for the poor, you may bear the scent of their need. If you embrace sinners, you may endure the rejection of those who think themselves righteous.

St. Francis of Assisi, after contemplating Christ's Passion deeply, was marked with the stigmata, the very wounds of Jesus. But we don’t need physical signs to share in Christ’s suffering. Love the people Jesus loves, and you will bear scars. You will be marked - emotionally, physically, or spiritually - as one of His own.

Paul once wrote that we are to “make up in our own bodies what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” Of course, he didn’t mean Christ’s suffering was insufficient to save the world - but rather that we are invited to join our suffering with His, in love, in solidarity, in witness.

So, are you a marked person? I hope you are. I hope we all are, branded not by bitterness, but by the love of Christ.

Lord Jesus, if we carry scars from our journey through life, let us rejoice. For we are in the company of your saints, like St. Paul, like St. Francis, marked by love, and walking always in Your footsteps. Amen.

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