The Hands Of Jesus

by J.R. LUCK | Category: Devotional Meditations | Dec 1961

The subject of hands, generally, would be an engaging study of itself, as there are no two pairs of hands alike. This suggests the infinite variety of the Creator's handiwork.

How shall we speak of the hands of Jesus? Even as children we sang:

"I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,

That His arms had been thrown around me,"

and, though many years have passed over our heads since then, we still long for the touch of His wonderful hands, the most wonderful ever prepared for a human body. "A body didst Thou prepare for Me," He said, that is, specially prepared by God with such a unique purpose in view, yet a body so like ours, made like His brethren in all things, apart from sin. No authentic portrait has come down to us, so our meditation on those hands may run on unhampered save by that four-fold written portrait of the gospels.

That body (as did ours) commenced life on earth as a tiny Baby, and as He lay in the manger in the cattle shed was gazed upon by Bethlehem's humble shepherds.

In the carpenter's shop at Nazareth those hands would develop in occupational growth as the blessed Son of God, "in human form arrayed," plied the instruments of His trade. We imagine they became hard and scarred in the performance of the assiduous tasks to which He applied Himself so thoroughly:

Mark the earnest Workman toiling, Faithful to His task and true, Deeming naught of labour soiling That His kingly hands would do."

As He was about to commence His public ministry, we judge the Baptist reverently held those hands as he plunged their Divine Owner beneath the water, in order "to fulfil all righteousness."

Matthew 11.25-80. "At that season," a critical one in our Lord's earthly life, we may suppose He stretched out those hands, not only to the concourse gathered before Him, but in universal blessing and affectionate invitation, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." With full knowledge of the circumstances of every heart, with complete assurance from His Father that He alone is the Dispenser of absolute and perennial rest, He addresses all and expects response, not from "the wise and understanding," but from "babes" to whom would be revealed their perilous and hopeless state. Such, coming to Him at Calvary, have the burden of sin rolled away and find incomparable and all8atisfying rest in fellowship of service for Him who says, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

Mark 8.22-26. This is one of the many incidents of healing, those miraculous signs which attest our Lord's Deity and which were administered to grateful recipients from a heart of boundless love. How often His hands were the instrument of blessing as He touched sightless eyes and gave sight, leprous bodies and gave cleansing, touched a bier, and, speaking to the corpse, gave life! Those hands were, indeed, the willing tools of His great heart of compassion.

"Thy touch has still its ancient power

No word from Thee can fruitless fall;

Hear in this solemn evening hour,

And in Thy mercy heal as all!"

Matthew 19.13-15. The Master had been reasoning with, and teaching, the Pharisees, regarding a very weighty subject. Afterwards, in response to questions from His disciples, He had pressed the matter further. Breaking in on this company come "mothers of Salem " with their little children, eager that He should bless them. Naturally, the disciples resent such an interruption, but the hands of Jesus lovingly stroke each little head, as He says, " Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He is still looking for humility and childlike grace in each of His disciples, " for of such is the kingdom of heaven," but only as we experience His benign touch can these traits be maintained.

Mould me and make me, after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still."

Mark 8. 1-9. Christ's heart yearns over the great multitude which has been hanging on His words and He will not send them home unfed, lest they faint by the way. His hands take the seven loaves and few fishes (all that can be produced) and, with thanks expressed to His Father, He multiplies them so that there is more than enough for all. May the writer and reader each ask, "Have I yet brought myself, unreservedly, under His marvellous hands that lie may bless

and multiply my tiny gift to the sustenance of the great multitude?". May the language of each heart be:

"Lord, I yield: no more withstanding

Thine all-loving will,

Take me, Master, break me, make me,

Cleanse and fill."

Luke 13.34, 35. Jesus is walking with His disciples towards Jerusalem, and, as the city comes into view in all the beauty of its temple-dominated architecture, He looks upon Israel's capital, and, perhaps spreading out those hands, cries wistfully, " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her ! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not !

Matthew 14. 28; Mark 1.85; Luke 6.12, 18; Luke 22.89-46. Those hands which so often rested in blessing upon diseased and suffering humanity were, perforce, supplicating hands. Though He was God from all eternity, while here in the flesh Jesus realized His dependence upon His God and Father. So, many an hour, following the example of Psalm 28.2, those expressive hands reached upward in fervent supplication. Without these petitions and the Father's response (we speak reverently) those hands could never have blessed the sons of men. As a result of our meditation on Him, shall we also learn the lesson of utter dependence upon our gracious God and be found before Him more often in supplication, that He may fulfil our every need, "according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus?"

Through dark Gethsemane we pass, pausing in awe, as we see, lying prostrate, that One whose hands had done so much good. We listen, with bated breath, to words wrung from His smitten heart, "Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me." So great was His anguish that He prayed more earnestly. Thrice these words pass His lips, and He says, "Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done." We hear the oncoming rabble, Judas at their head, marking Him as their quarry by his awful kiss, whereat they roughly bind those hands and lead Him away to trial by the Sanhedrin; afterwards, in Pilate's presence His back is furrowed by the cruel lash and He suffers heart-rending indignities.

"Have we no tears to shed for Him,

While soldiers mock and Jews deride?"

for,

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."

Psalm 22.1-21. They lead Him forth to Calvary and there they pierce those blessed hands, that, upon the cross, He might fulfil the Scriptures and bring salvation to man. With beating heart we gaze, as the executioner, having roughly placed the body upon the central cross, takes up the spikes with which he fixes hands and feet. The harsh strokes of his hammer strike terror to our breasts, until we remember,

"To bring us gain, He bare the pain, And suffered shame and loss."

Remorse for our sin, the cause of this awful scene, and love for Him, "who bore in love unbounded what none can know," surely fill our hearts as we look and listen to the ringing blows and the nails penetrating quivering flesh and muscle. He is not held to the cross merely by nails but by His love for sinners, whose hands have ever shed innocent blood. For them HIS hands, so to speak, reach out from the cross to all in silent appeal, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself."

A few hours later the nails are carefully withdrawn and His body lovingly laid in the new tomb of Joseph.

How comforting to know that, in "the body of glory" in which He appeared after His resurrection, those hands are still extended in blessing to His own! No scintillating. radiance is seen from palms and finger-tips, a glory which would repulse rather than attract; but contrariwise, His hands still bear the scars of the cruel immolation at Calvary. These awful, yet sublime, wounds are the marks by which His stricken disciples identify Him and are comforted.

Luke 24. 13-82. Multitudes have been strengthened as they have meditated on this scripture, and, in spirit, have walked to Emmaus with the two disciples, who were accompanied by One who "interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." We join their company as He consents, at their request, to abide with them. Graciously acceding, He dispenses to them the simple fare with those nail-scarred hands, by which we know Him as the risen Christ. Yet, how incredulous are His disciples, generally, concerning His resurrection, mystified by His unhampered movement and various appearances! The words of those who have already seen Him alive seem but as "idle tales," and Thomas must needs be invited to put his finger in the wounds of the nails in those hands which had so blessed and suffered. At the sight and proof, the hard-headed follower, in adoration, bends the knee saying, "My Lord and My God" He thus draws from the risen Saviour a word of sweet encouragement and benediction for us today, "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." May our contemplation cause us the more readily to say, "Abide with us ! " so shall we, by faith, see those pierced hands, and, to the measure in which we hail Him as Lord and God will He come to reign in all His resurrection power in our hearts.

Luke 24.50-52; Acts 1.9-11. With uplifted heart we approach that final scene, "over against Bethany," as being parted from them, a cloud receives Him and He is lost to their physical view. But in going lie blesses them, and His wounded palms, being held out in benediction, would, all their days, be associated with that last mental picture. Further, there is a word from angelic lips, for them and for us, He "shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven." Pierced hands, at His return, will be seen by His own in an attitude of blessing, and we shall be caught up to Him, and shall see Him, and be like Him. The longing of childhood days for the touch of His hands has given place to a deeper expectation of the day when we shall behold the King in His beauty, and at His hands. we shall receive blessings for evermore. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

But those hands, once nailed to the cross and, in glory, stilt bearing the marks of His awful agony, while eternally blessing those who have trusted Him as Saviour, will dispense the justice of God's throne upon those who remain Christ-rejectors. Then such will say, "to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath

of the Lamb."

J.R. LUCK | Dec 1961
Devotional Meditations