What’s On That Truck?

I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Body piercing saved my life!” There it was. Painted on the back window of a pickup truck in the parking lot at the county fair.

I sneered, Has anyone ever assumed that punching holes in your body could save you or help you?

Then I looked again and saw the picture behind those words: A rough-hewn brown cross.

Body piercing isn’t new. The prophet Isaiah knew about it, for he says, “He was pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed.” (53:3) On imperial orders, the Romans soldiers fulfilled that prophecy about 750 years later.

Yes, I began to consider another kind of piercing, the cruel piercings done on a rugged hill.

As nails ripped through the wooden symbol of death for transgressors, the nails also ripped through muscles and bones and splattered blood–his holy blood. A Roman spear sliced his side, the side of the kindest and only sin-free man who ever lived.

After his resurrection, Jesus showed his disciples his pierced hands and feet, proof of his identity. And we’ll recognize him the same way, not by the crowns he wears, but by the scars he bears.

We may boast in the status and “in thing” of piercing our nose, tongue, navel, and other body parts. But these offer nothing more than moments of attention and fleeting gratification. Christ’s body piercing does not give us status and those fleeting moments. Instead, because of the piercing of his hands, feet, and side, we have a Savior–for eternity.

Yes, definitely, body piercing saved my life.