After our Bible conference last fall in Alcester, England, my son Jesse and I did some sightseeing in London. As we waited for one of Londonβs legendary double decker tour buses to pick us up, I noticed that the Ritz Hotel across the street had some pockmarks on the exterior of their otherwise beautiful building. These marks didnβt look like the kind of deterioration that all buildings suffer from age. They looked more like the kind of damage that is inflicted when something impacts the building. That got me to wondering if those marks might be injuries sustained during the Blitz of London in World War II.
Sure enough, our tour bus driver later pointed out similar pockmarks on St. Paulβs Cathedral, and confirmed that they were indeed the result of shrapnel from the countless bombs that rocked the city during Hitlerβs horrendous eight-month onslaught of Englandβs capital.
Our tour guide said nothing further about the marks, but I began to wonder why those damaged areas were never repaired. Surely a hotel as fine as the Ritz could easily have afforded to erase the scars of the Nazi barrage. And I have to assume that at some point the Church of England could have scraped together the money to restore the flagship church of their religion, and put the memory of that horrific bombing behind them.
The only conclusion to which I could come is that they donβtΒ wantΒ to put it behind them. They donβtΒ wantΒ to forget the suffering they had to endure as a city. They donβtΒ wantΒ to forget the price they had to pay for the freedom from fascism that they continue to enjoy to this day. And itβs not likely that theyΒ willΒ forget. Those pockmarks wonβt let them.
That got me to thinking of how weβll never be able to forget the priceΒ the LordΒ paid to save usΒ from our sins. The pockmarks in His blessed face wonβt let us. Isaiah describes how His face was brutalized (Isa. 52:14), and He retained those scars after He rose from the dead (cf. John 20:27). We know HeΒ continuedΒ to bear themΒ even after He ascended into heaven, for in a vision of heaven John describes Him as βa Lamb as it had been slainβ (Rev. 5:6). So once the Lord raptures us to heaven, His pockmarked face will βshew the Lordβs deathβ for all eternity.
But βtill He come,β our apostle Paul says it is important to βshew the Lordβs deathβΒ in the communion serviceΒ (1 Cor. 11:23-26). If Godβs people didnβt tend to forget Him, He wouldnβt have had to keep telling His people in IsraelΒ notΒ to (Deut. 6:12; 8:11,14,19). No wonder the Lord tellsΒ us to partake of the bread and the cup βin remembrance of Meβ (1 Cor. 11:24,25). source
