For People with Bishop Rob Wright
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
More
What do we do with our wounds? When betrayal cuts deep, when painful experiences leave scars, we have control of how we move forward - with God's help. Jesus' post-resurrection appearances challenge our conventional responses to hurt. Jesus, freshly risen from death after being betrayed by his closest followers, doesn't seek distance or retribution. Instead, he passes through locked doors to reconnect with the very people who abandoned him. This radical choice reveals what authentic power looks like: not domination or revenge, but the capacity to remain engaged despite deep wounds.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about that first post-resurrection gathering. Bishop Wright unpacks what he calls "God's perpetual Easter pattern" of unlocking, transforming, and redeeming. This divine process takes our wounds seriously without allowing them to become our primary identity. Just as Jesus acknowledged his wounds without making them the focal point, we too can validate our pain while asking the essential question: "Now what?" The answer lies in allowing God to recycle even our most painful experiences into bridges of connection with others. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
So the wound happened, the scar is there, the betrayal happened, the infidelity happened. Now what to do? And so we get a great model in Jesus. Jesus sort of walks in and he transcends them. One of the things that we do in the Christian faith is that we say God can make wonders out of wounds, even our wounds. God has the capacity to transform. And that is the message of the cross in the life, death and resurrection and continued ministry of Jesus Christ.
Melissa:Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm Melissa Rau and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. Hey, hey, bishop.
Bishop Wright:Hey Melissa.
Melissa:So this week's devotion, you called More. It's based off of John chapter 20, post-resurrection, when Jesus is coming in the door and revealing himself to his followers. Right, you said something big and bold at the very end, but I'm going to hold that. I'm just curious why this? Why now? What's hitting?
Bishop Wright:Well, what hits me is is that, uh, you know, if you had been betrayed, uh, by your friends at your, at your sort of uh, at the hour you needed the most and they never really quite got it, you know, while you were sort of doing the ministry, and, uh, you know, and here you are, god has raised you from the dead. Would that be the first group of people that you went to? I mean, you know, there is, you know, there is an equation that says that I don't go to those people, I go absolutely away from those people, right, and yet here's Jesus, and to say nothing, you know, to say nothing of the fact that they're locked in a locked room, doors shut tight for fear, and they're disoriented and they don't know what to do and where to go. And Jesus goes to them first. I mean, part of his resurrection, first 24, 36 hours, is to go and be again with the community that missed the mark, that fell short, and Jesus goes there. And Jesus has to exert great effort, he has to get through locked doors and say how, but he gets through locked doors somehow to be again with them. And that's just so really striking to me.
Bishop Wright:You know, I think we are now in an age where those of us who read the Bible slowly, slowly, who don't tell the Bible what it needs to say, but who invite the Bible to speak to us, we've got to say these messages because I think these messages are going to save us from a Christianity that uses Jesus, you know, for a Christianity that is still about Jesus. And so you know somebody's calculus would be Jesus was a sucker and he was weak. And you know, to be engaged and to be engaged in this forgiveness and this redemption, peace is a foolish enterprise, and we see this in popular culture all along, and we see this from people who say that they're operating under the banner of Christianity. But here again Jesus shows us what real power is. Somehow he finds capacity and power to engage people that have missed the mark. He doesn't castigate them, he doesn't lecture them, he walks in and is with them again. His ministry resumes, his friend-making campaign goes deeper.
Melissa:I like that you highlighted the importance, I guess, of power and the way Jesus utilizes power in a different sort of way. You also said in your devotion talking about how Jesus didn't really focus on his wounds. He could have, he could have been like look at me, look these, you know.
Bishop Wright:And yet, yeah, he knows not to you know, I remember this joke and I I tell it carefully uh, where, uh, you know, a mother was having a moment of of regret and said uh, uh, you know, she was looking at her c-section scar and said to her said child, look what you did to me, you know, jesus could have walked through the room, you know, very different than the record shows. It said look what you folks did to me, you know. But actually it's interesting when Jesus reenters the room, his wounds are incidental, right, I mean, he doesn't make much of them. It's interesting that somehow he's done his work, he's worked through them, he's transcended them, he's accepted them, and so wounds are legitimate, but Jesus doesn't make him the focal point. It's not until, you know, sort of Thomas and some other folks get involved, where Jesus has to stop a moment and do a show and tell about wounds. And I find that that's instructive, because I find that a lot of times we get stuck in really a lot of terrible ways. We get stuck in cul-de-sacs of our wounds. People have wounded us, that is true. The way we feel about those, that is legitimate, absolutely. So an absolute affirmation for me about that. But then we're left with the question at some point, once we sort of get down and we validate the wounds et cetera, as we need to do and sometimes we need help with that therapy, pastoral counseling, a good friend, whatever it is you're still going to be left with the question now what Right? Right, so the wound happened, the scar is there, the betrayal happened, the infidelity happened. You know, the terrible thing, said, happened, it's all terrible, it's all putrid. Now what to do? And so we get a great model in Jesus. Jesus sort of walks in and he transcends them.
Bishop Wright:One of the things that we do in the Christian faith is that we say God can make wonders out of wounds, and so even our wounds, you know, god has the capacity to transform, and that is the message of the cross, right, they meant for shame, what they meant for capital punishment, what they meant for brutality. Somehow God has used powerfully, you know, in the life, death and resurrection and continued ministry of Jesus Christ. And so we hold that hope out to people that the wounds, the Good Friday, are not the last word. But what will God now do with the wounds? Again, I've said this again and again.
Bishop Wright:You know, the AA community, alcoholics Anonymous community, is one of the best examples of this, but there are other examples that say, hey, if I get really real about my wounds in community, I can transform them. I can say to others I know your pain and yet there's a better way, and I think that's what we're supposed to be doing now. This is why you know, part of being, I think, a faithful follower of Jesus is finding a way to communicate your wounds, not to stew in them, but to communicate them as a space, as the epicenter of God's good work in your life.
Melissa:Right so we need to be able to tell the truth of God's good work in your life. Right so we need to be able to tell the truth we need to name the wounds but move through them.
Bishop Wright:You know, I'll say something that'll sound really, really outrageous here, and that is if what we say about Jesus' transforming power and what God did in Good Friday and Easter Sunday is really true, Then in a in a weird way, you know, we have Pontius, Pilate, Judas, and, and a small minded religious community. Jesus is a small minded religious community, you know, in a weird way to thank. Now, I don't want to go too far for this, but the logic is clear, right. So in some ways, well, I'll put it this way, I'll say it this way very personally when I was a parish priest, there was a fella who just gave me hell, you know, every day, and twice on Sunday. You know, he was the kind of guy that if I could walk on water he would say see, see him walking on water, that's because he can't swim. You know what?
Bishop Wright:I mean he would find it, he would find it. I mean, you know, this was the kind of fellow that he was and you know we tried to. He and I both, you know, tried to buy each other coffee and try to find our way, and this was a chemical aversion, I don't know what it was, I mean, and we kept it appropriate, but it was palpable, you know, and you know. And then, when I was elected bishop and went from, you know, being a parish priest and now to having 120 congregations, having 120 congregations, it was that fella, living with him, trying to do ministry with him, that I think has equipped me better for being bishop than many of the people who patted me on the back and said attaboy.
Bishop Wright:So there is this paradoxical relationship, right with hardship, and I think Jesus models this wonderfully well. So wounds, hard times, et cetera, all legitimate, need to be validated and at the same time, you know, we hold out the possibility in God's economy of what will it now produce? Who can I now get beside? You know, what new insights do I have that I can give the world, now that I've been betrayed, now that I've been lied to, now that I've been alone, I've been rejected, all those things that Jesus did. He now walks into the room with these folks and somehow sees them as ways to build bridges with people.
Melissa:So let's talk about, then, that great Easter pattern that you highlighted. You said that God's perpetual Easter pattern is always to unlock, transform and redeem. Bishop, how are we invited to do that work to unlock, transform and redeem?
Bishop Wright:Well, I mean, I hope that this podcast is in some way participating in that pattern. Right, so this is God's pattern all the way through through scripture. Right so God equips, you know, men and women with these. You know little, you know. Thus saith the Lord you know these sort of words, this poetry, you know this insistence on neighborliness that's to help us unlock, right To unlock from, from things that are locked up, uh, locked up minds, locked up hearts, locked up status quo, locked up ways to be community. So, you know, god is always trying to break in. It's.
Bishop Wright:It's interesting, it could be a whole sermon series about. You know, why do we keep uh sort of locking doors? Uh, you know, um, you know that God has to continually sort of unlock. You know, I think we should make a picture of God as a safe cracker, right, Because God is always trying to break into hearts. And why are we keep locking up our hearts? So that's the unlock part. So Jesus tells these wonderful stories about neighborliness. Jesus tells the Good Samaritan the prodigal son story, the story of the sower. Jesus tells all these stories. He's trying to lock on authentic community. He's trying to unlock authentic faith. He's trying to unlock an authentic sort of vision of who God is right, and that's his ministry. And now here he is, you know, fresh out of the tomb, trying to, you know, unlock, literally unlocking the door so he could be again with the people who have fallen short. So that's the unlock, and so the transformation piece comes next, and that's exactly what we've already been sort of talking about. So so God is a master recycler. So even all of the, all those sort of the constituent parts of our unlocking, god wants to now reverse and use.
Bishop Wright:I mean, we see this, you know, maybe most poetically, in in Saul Paul, st Paul. I mean, saul is a persecutor of the church. He's got a chip on his shoulder, he's trying to make his bones, he's trying to, you know, gain legitimacy in the religious community by being a persecutor of the church. God says, ah, look, I'd love to transform that. Wouldn't that be an amazing poster? Wouldn't he be an amazing poster child? Now, for the love of God in Christ Jesus, I think I'll find him on a Damascus road and knock him down off of his horse, you know, in a white flash of light, Right? So so there again there's. There's no more um powerful example of God's transformation work is is when God moves us from one column to the next column. Uh, I was lost, now I'm found. I was blind, Now I see I was persecuted, now I'm chief apostle Right, and that transformation.
Bishop Wright:It really sort of taps the shoulders of other people to say, whoa, wasn't Melissa or Rob over here? And now they're over here. You know what has happened, right, there's the opportunity and then redeem, and that is is that God uses it all, all of it. God, you know, as I've said, God recycles, god uses all the bits and pieces. You know, I just imagine God looking into a refrigerator of lots of Tupperware and saying I can use all this and then putting out a five-star sort of Michelin-deserving meal. I mean, this is what God does in ways that we can't account for. We could have never imagined the ways in which God would use those leftovers, and yet God uses them. God would use those leftovers, and yet God uses them.
Melissa:Bishop, I imagine redemption work as a human endeavor, that really the thing that lies underneath all of it is dignity. And so I mean, I guess, what does that actively look like, the redeeming work? How do we engage in redeeming work? What does that look like?
Bishop Wright:Well, I think, before I go there, I think you said something really really critical. I think that's dignity, and so you know. So one could ask. So why does God do this, right? We could say, well, you know, God is just wonderful, and that's true. We can just say that this is just the personality of God. That's also true. The Bible says that God is love, not God that is loving, the personality of God. That's also true. The Bible says that God is love, not God that is loving, but God is love. God is the actual force, God is love.
Bishop Wright:But at least some part of the pie chart has got to be that God has made us, loved us. We're made in God's image and therefore god sees that our worth. So at least part of the equation in my mind has got to be that when god sees us in all of our various states of disrepair, god still sees something good worth redeeming. God still sees something good that is uh, worthwhile. And you know what's interesting as we go along in life is is that and this is why we have to continue to tell the story of Jesus and his love is, is that we've got to be reminded that God loves us because we struggle to love ourselves and we certainly struggle to love other people, right? So so we are reminded consistently that we are of incredible value to God, all of us. And this is why, you know, misogyny, homophobism, racism, all the isms, all the ethnic atrocities must be a profound stink in God's nostrils, to use an image from the Bible, Because here we are trying to cut out people from the worthwhile and the worthy equation, and God has gone to such great lengths to bring everybody in. And so we find ourselves not only being indifferent, hateful, not only being indifferent, hateful, exclusive, excluding to neighbor, but we find ourselves in tragic opposition to God's design and to God's impulses and to God's work. And that is the very definition of sin is to find myself in opposition to the genius love of God because of my short-sightedness, because of my smallness, because of my need for superiority and separateness.
Bishop Wright:And so here's God saying again and again, and even right after Easter hey, you guys missed the mark. And look at these wounds and yet, and look at these wounds, and yet you are so worthy and so worthwhile. And the worthiness is not because of achievement. That's also what's in the room that day. There's no achievement in the room. They've all flunked the test. There's not a D, there's no Cs, there's not a D in the room. It's like F, big fat, red Fs, right, Right, and these are the people that God says has dignity in Jesus's ministry. These are the people right.
Bishop Wright:Everybody who's flunked the test, raise your hand right, and so somehow God sees in that room still the potential right, and I think this has got to be a driving force in our life together is that I have to see that in myself, I have to see myself through the ways in which God sees me, and then I have to really do the hard work of seeing others, particularly the ones I struggle to love in this way. And not so we can be nice. Let me just say this lastly not so we can be nice, because I don't know what the hell nice is right. If you actually look up the word, it means insipid, right. It means having no real substance or power.
Bishop Wright:I think it is so that you know, one heart at a time that we can begin to close some of the gaps in the real world gaps around education and healthcare, gaps around sharing and wealth and all this sort of thing.
Bishop Wright:You know people get into these conversations about capitalism and socialism. You know I don't care about either of those models. I think that the gospel model seems to suggest that all had enough, All had enough, and while that runs counter to a lot of people's need to feel like they've got the most toys or they're on top of the pile or that they themselves, all by themselves, under their own power, have worked so hard to amass whatever it is they've amassed and therefore they shouldn't be sort of constrained to give anything, I think we're just coming at it wrong. I I think that when you go down deep in the way that jesus sort of goes down deep with this redemption piece and transformation pizza and unlocking peace, you know you, you end up sharing. You end up sharing at a level that is really even unimaginable to us. Once we get really going and you end up not having to need a lot that's the funny thing about it Once you're full up on knowing who God is and who you are in God's eyes and heart, it's amazing what you don't need.
Melissa:Indeed Bishop, thank you, and thank you for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright, or by visiting www. forpeople. digital. Please subscribe, leave a review and we'll be back with you next week. Bye.