Beloved pastor and bestselling Christian author Max Lucado is turning heads — and hearts — after revealing he recently got his first tattoo at age 70 to mark a powerful milestone: 50 years since the moment he says grace found him.
In a deeply personal social media post, Lucado shared that he chose to have the Greek word “Tetelestai” — meaning “It is finished” — tattooed on his right forearm to commemorate what he called the “golden anniversary of God’s great grace” in his life. It’s the same word Jesus spoke from the cross, as recorded in John 19:30, declaring that the debt of sin had been paid in full.
“This was the message that changed my life,” Lucado wrote. “I was a 20-year-old scoundrel, a bum, a train off the tracks… drunk, a racist, a misogynist, a brawler, and a schemer. Worst of all, I was a hypocrite. I wondered, honestly wondered, could Christ forgive a jerk like me?”
Lucado said that in the spring of 1975, everything changed. One evening, he heard a preacher describe a grace that was greater than all his sin — and it pierced his heart.
“On the cross, Christ paid my debt. It is paid — paid in full,” he said. “I said ‘yes.’ That was 50 years ago. In the intervening half-century, I have failed Jesus many times, but He has never failed me.”
The Help Is Here author acknowledged that not everyone might agree with a pastor getting a tattoo at his age, but made it clear that his decision was between him and God.
“That’s okay. I didn’t do it for people. I did it to say thank you to Jesus, who paid a debt I could not pay. Do you know this grace?”
Lucado added:
“I could care less if this truth is tattooed on your skin, but I care deeply that it be tattooed on your heart.”
The Texas-based pastor, currently serving as interim pastor at Gateway Church and long affiliated with Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, has never shied away from being honest about his past — or his present struggles. Diagnosed with an ascending aortic aneurysm in 2021, Lucado has leaned ever more heavily on God’s sustaining grace.
In his 2023 book God Never Gives Up on You, he described a time in his life when he quietly began turning to alcohol to manage ministry stress, even driving to a distant store to buy beer secretly.
“The staff needed me. The pulpit required me. The publisher was counting on me. The entire world was looking to me,” Lucado wrote. “So, I did what came naturally. I began to drink.”
But it was in a parking lot, sipping beer from a brown paper bag, that he said God gently but firmly confronted him:
“Really, Max?” Lucado recalled God whispering. “If you have everything together, why are you hiding?”
Convicted, Lucado confessed to his church elders and congregation. Their response wasn’t shame—it was prayer, support, and accountability. That experience, he says, led to freedom and a deeper understanding of forgiveness.
“God met me there that day… He gave me a new name as well. Not Israel — that one was already taken. But ‘forgiven.’ And I’m happy to wear it.”
Lucado’s recent tattoo is part of a broader conversation among Christian leaders about faith and body art. In recent years, others such as Joyce Meyer and Matt Chandler have also gotten tattoos as personal expressions of faith. While opinions vary within the Christian community — with some referencing Leviticus 19:28 and others urging thoughtful discernment — Lucado’s act has sparked reflection rather than division.
Reformed theologian John Piper has said that tattoos aren’t inherently sinful but that believers should seek to glorify God in all they do, including their decisions about body art.
For Lucado, the ink is a bold and heartfelt declaration of God’s mercy. As he continues to preach, teach, and write, his tattoo now quietly echoes a message he’s proclaimed for decades: Jesus paid it all.
“Tetelestai,” Lucado wrote. “It is finished.”