For the six weeks of the church season of Lent, as well as for “Holy Week” (the week before Easter), I will try to explore how fully invested the Lord Jesus was in regard to securing our salvation.  The penalty for our sin was no small thing, and it exacted a huge toll on him.  Yet he was determined to be our holy Substitute. 

Each week I’ll share some thoughts on yet another part of Jesus’ body which he committed to the cause.  These posts will form the basis of our Wednesday evening worship discussions.  I pray they provide wonderful food for thought, and blessed encouragement to all of us!

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How many people had been helped by those hands?  How many times had they reached out in love to touch the hurting and despised?  How often had their gentle touch comforted the grief-stricken?

Now those kind hands were stretched out wide and cruelly nailed to a cross.

Scripture abounds with references to God’s hands.  Already in the second chapter of the Bible, we hear how the Triune God hand-formed the first man from the soil of the earth (Gen. 2:7) and the first woman from the man’s rib (Gen. 2:22) … both created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27).  From the very beginning of time, God’s “hands” were directly involved with, and bringing blessings to, humans.

Throughout the Old Testament, many idioms referring to God’s “hand” describe the Lord’s activity in colorful illustrations.  Psalm 89:13 summarizes it succinctly.  Speaking to the Lord the psalmist writes, “Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.”  Job 12:10 states this: “In [God’s] hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

The Lord states the simple but profound truth.  “I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens” (Isaiah 48:12-13).

The Scriptures repeatedly speak of God turning his hand against Israel’s enemies (Ezek. 25:6-7).  His hands lay hold of his enemies and seize his foes (Ps. 21:8); they destroy idolatrous prophets; (Ezek. 14:9) they drive out godless nations (Ps. 44:2).

But those same hands bring prodigious blessings to God’s people.  They are described as being lifted up in solemn oath (Dt. 32:40) and subsequently fulfilling those promises (1 Kgs. 8:15).  God’s hands are with those who love him (1 Chr. 4:10), satisfying them with good things (Ps. 104:28), upholding them (Ps. 37:24), delivering and rescuing them (Ps. 144:7).  In short, the Lord’s “hands” perform awesome deeds (Ps. 45:4).

The Gospels also repeatedly refer to God’s hands.  But when they do, they are no longer using idioms.  It was the actual hands of Jesus, God-Made-Man, in action.

And wherever his hands were involved, Jesus was expressing love.

After casting out a demon who had been tormenting a boy, the boy was prone on the ground.  “Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet” (Mark 9:27).  Following the terrifying revelation of his glory to three of his disciples, they were facedown on the ground, but Jesus lovingly touched them and reassured them.  And who can forget the picture of Jesus with the children?  “He took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them” (Mark 10:16).

Jesus routinely laid his hands on the sick and healed them (Mk. 6:5).  We witness it as he gently touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law and broke her fever (Mt. 8:14-15).  And again when he touched the crippled woman and straightened her back for the first time in eighteen years (Lk. 13:13), when he placed his hands on a blind man’s eyes and restored his sight (Mk. 8:25), when he inserted his fingers into a deaf man’s ears and mouth, providing hearing and speech (Mk. 7:35), and when he did the unthinkable and touched a leper to cleanse him (Mt. 8:3).  Most striking of all, Jesus grasped a dead girl’s hand and raised her back to life (Mk 5:41-42). 

Then there was the final healing miracle Jesus performed.  After Peter sliced off the right ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus “touched the man’s ear and healed him” (Luke 22:51).  An astounding miracle!  Yet even more astounding – even after witnessing his love and his power, his enemies were still determined to arrest him and kill him.

Just a day later, the hands which laid the foundations of the earth and which repeatedly broke the rules of nature by bringing healing and help to the hurting were stretched along a beam of wood and viciously secured to it with piercing nails.  And once again when Jesus’ hands were involved, they were expressing love … in this case, profound love.

Dr. William D. Edwards describes exactly what crucifixion entailed.

“They could either tie or nail the hands … but the Romans preferred nailing.  Archaeological evidence indicated that the nails used were tapered iron spikes approximately 5-7 inches long and 3/8 inches in diameter with a square shaft.  They were usually driven through the wrists because they would tear out of the flesh in the palms of the hands.”

“When the hands (wrists) were nailed to the cross, it is likely that painful periosteal injury would happen.  The driven nail would crush or sever the rather large sensorimotor median nerve … producing excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms.  At least part of the hand would be paralyzed, and impalement of the ligaments would probably produce a clawlike grasp.”

Of course, the mighty hand of the Lord would never have turned his hands over to mere humans to be abused were it not his intention to do so.  The Lord says: “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.  For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”  (Isaiah 14:26-27).

This is a fascinating passage!  It was spoken in reference to God’s plan to obliterate the enemies of his people, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.  Yet “Babylon” is often used in Scripture to speak of believers’ spiritual enemies.  And when Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross … they were stretched out for … and over! … all nations to obliterate the unholy three of sin, death and the devil.  It was the Lord’s “purposed” plan to win salvation for sinners, and no one could thwart him or turn his hands back!  Written to refer to earthly deliverance by the Lord, the words certainly apply to the spiritual deliverance Jesus brings as well.

Which leads us to join with the psalmists in praising our fully invested Lord Jesus. 

“The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.  Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!
The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!’  I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. (Psalm 118:14-17).  “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him” (Psalm 98:1).