It was the the most powerful memorial I have ever seen. The shoes on the Danube River is a memorial to honor then Jews that were massacred there. They were ordered to take off their shoes before being shot and their bodies fell in the water.
These shoes remember and honor what happened here. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking. You stand looking down at your feet, next to theirs and you can walk in their shoes. On the edge of this pavement, seeing the same view they saw. Powerful.
It is art because you can’t help but feel something when you look at them.
"Scars" - marks remaining after an injury. A lasting injury.
We are seeing the scars of a country. Not ones that were inflicted by an outside force. No, those are battle wounds. These are self- harm scars. The deep cut of a country that has harmed itself, as the fourth country to join the Axis power and send the most Jews to be killed. And that is even more painful. The memory is both grieving what has been done to them and what they have done to themselves.
But scars are important. They tell a story on our body. Both the good and the bad. The stretch marks from the pregnancy and the gunshot wound. And stories need to be remembered. Stories need to be told. Because in honoring and remembering we hope to never repeat them.
There’s another scar we remember. Another story we tell. They are the scars of a man who was hung on a cross for you and for me.
Isaiah 53:5 "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed."
In three days victory rang out, but not without the scars. So that we too can remember and believe.
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25
And we get an answer - Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:27
Those scars were ones that we inflicted. So that we would not have the wounds. Let us remember.
1 Peter 2:24 "And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds we are healed."
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