The Hands of Jesus
Our hands are the workers and achievers that demonstrate our desires and intentions. The scripture says, “We are fearfully and wonderfully made” and our hands have been endowed with the ability to build and destroy – express love or hate – the end product that reveals our innermost thoughts.
Have we not, each one, experienced the handshake of friendship, the beckoning of the hand, or a waved greeting? Have we not witnessed the clenched fist of defiance or the determination to succeed, and the lifting up of holy hands in prayer? Jesus, with grace and compassion, accomplished so much with the soft gentle touch of the hand, healing and blessing: Touching the eyes of the blind, healing the sick, reaching out to Peter on the Sea of Galilee as he began to sink beneath the waves. And these hands have not been withdrawn, they are outstretched to us still, to bless according to our several needs. With Jesus we see selflessness and thoughtfulness towards others, a humility and a willingness to fulfill God’s plan of salvation.
The most beautiful thing about the hands of Jesus is love through sacrifice – thoughts beautifully introduced to us by the prophet Isaiah: “Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have engraven thee ‘upon the palms of my hands” (Is 49:15,16). God is saying that it is more likely that a woman forget her baby than that He would ever forget us, his children, and He shows this in the hands of Jesus.
It was an eastern custom: a woman who could neither read nor write would have tattooed on her hands a mark as a permanent reminder of her absent son, whom she longs to see, as she goes about her daily life. There is an old Syrian proverb which says ‘What one does through another, one does oneself’. God, through His grace, allowed His beloved son to be crucified for us. The marks of that historic event remain for ever upon the hands of Jesus for all to see. How could God ever forget what Jesus endured upon the cross for us, the greatest expression of love that was ever made for us? How can we ever forget?
Luke 24:13-35 records how that, after the resurrection of Jesus, Cleopas and another disciple were traveling home from Jerusalem to Emmaus and unknowingly Jesus accompanied them, and he remained with them for a meal. Later they recounted their experience to the disciples how that “Jesus was known of them in the breaking of bread”. When Jesus put forth his hands to break the bread, they would have seen the marks in his wrists. Jesus is known of us also in the breaking of bread. Thomas also saw those marks and believed. Zechariah 13:6 transports our thoughts to the kingdom age: “One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends?” In the kingdom, we too shall see the wounds in the hands of Jesus. Before our eyes will be revealed the greatest love of all. How can we ever forget what has been accomplished for us in Jesus’ sacrifice and redemption?
May we always remember with much gratitude what Jesus endured upon the cross. He died for us that we might live for God. What better way can we demonstrate our love in return than through our own hands? With our hands we can serve the Lord. With his blessing, our hands can accomplish so much.
Bro Andrew Lucas (Australia)
