The last paragraph of Paul’s letter to the Galatians begins with an eye-catching line.  It would literally be so if we could see the original text.  When Paul wrote to his communities, he usually used a scribe.  Paul dictated the letter and the scribe wrote it neatly and evenly across the unlined page.  At the end of this letter, however, Paul decides to take up the reed pen himself and conclude the letter.  He writes to his community:

“See with what large letters I am writing to you in my own hand!” (6:11)

One can imagine the scribe wincing as he looks at Paul’s script on the perfect page.  Yet, Paul wants to say something important and personal, and he emphasizes that truth by writing it himself with his own unruly and unmistakable style.

Two sentences stand out for me in this paragraph (Gal 6:11-18).

First, Paul insists:

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (6:14)

For Paul, the cross was the heart of his theology.  His boast was never in the number of Churches that he founded, or the number of people whom he converted, or the number of journeys that he made, but always in his willingness to suffer for the sake of the Gospel without compromise.

Later in the final words of the Epistle (which is my second point), Paul says something that is connected to this earlier assertion:

“From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.” (6:17)

In the ancient world, three classes of people were branded on their bodies: soldiers, slaves and religious devotees. Of course, Paul is not speaking of a literal branding when he declares that on his body were the marks of Jesus (nor does he speak of the stigmata!).  He refers to the scars that had been left by the scourgings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonments and turmoil he had endured for the sake of Christ. They showed that he belonged wholly to Christ, his Master. He was a soldier, a slave, a devotee.  Paul had not avoided the difficulties that accompany the faithful following of the Lord, and so he carried these signs of his fidelity.  Nothing limited his willingness—even eagerness—in the proclamation of the Gospel and the witness to the crucified Lord.  He traveled great distances over land and sea; he spoke to Jews and Gentiles in Hebrew and Greek; he confronted civil as well as religious forces with unwavering courage.  He knew what he had to say, and he said it!  No one could question his integrity as a missionary of the Lord.  He bore the marks!

As we read these words, a challenge emerges for us.  How do we bear the marks of Jesus as a sign of our fidelity to him?  For most of us, that would not involve the kinds of physical afflictions as Paul experienced them, but our discipleship cannot be so neutral as to leave us unmarked by the faith that is at the center of our lives.  All of us have crosses that we bear as members of families, of communities and of society.  Sometimes it may be medical, sometimes financial, sometimes relational, but they make demands of us and must be borne with faith and hope.  None of us can live a single day without taking up our yoke and carrying it.  We are scored by these burdens. Perhaps, with some humility and heartfelt desire, we can say with Paul:

“I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.”