There is something that almost everyone reading this has in common but we probably ignore almost every minute of the day. Without these things you wouldn't be able to open your Bible, grasp a pen, or even hold a handkerchief to your nose when you sneeze. The thing I am writing about is our hands. Take a second and look at your hands. Our hands are similar and yet different. Some of our hands might be white in color, others maybe black, other maybe a tan color. Some of our hands are smoother and softer and some of our hands are callous and rugged. My dad has been a machinist for over forty years and needless to say he has strong, rough hands from all those years of heavy labor.
Fathom for a moment that someone writes a book about the story of your hands. The story would begin with cute, frail little digits. The opening chapter might be about the time you wrapped your tiny fingers around your dads pointer finger, or maybe about when you held your bottle for the first time, or maybe when you used a spoon to feed yourself. The story would include lots of first like holding someone's hand, when you changed your own oil, built something, or cooked something. Flash forward a few years when your hand placed a ring on the finger of your love. As a parent your hands are used to put Mickey Mouse bandaids onto your children's wounds. Maybe your hands have been used to play an instrument filling a room with beautiful music.
But the story of our hands would not just include good things we did with them, it would also include things that brought us shame. The story of our hands would talk about a time when we touched somebody we should not have touched, when we clinched our fingers to make a fist, when we pointed our finger in defiance, or when we clicked the mouse pad to look at an inappropriate image. What story does our hands tell? A story of grace and love or hatred? A story of giving or taking? Loving or seducing? Our hands are dirty and James tells us to wash our hands as sinners, BUT there is someone who has perfect hands. His name is Jesus Christ. I want to look at a few traits about Jesus' hands.
The first trait I want you to see is the cleansing hands of Jesus. Jesus as the Son of God, God in the flesh was endowed with power to touch people physically and to heal them. There are countless miracles in the Gospels that showcase Jesus amazing power to heal those from a variety of different maladies. This miraculous power to touch those that were sick was given as an evidence, a proof of His deity. One particular miracle that Jesus committed can be found in Luke 13:10-13 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A10-13&version=ESV). On this particular day we find Jesus teaching in the synagogue and during His teaching a woman is brought before Him who was seriously sick. Culturally this would have been unheard of. A woman typically wasn't allowed to enter the synagogue. You can almost heard the religious leaders in the community gasp in dismay.
The woman who comes before Jesus was basically paralyzed. She had been in that condition for eighteen years. Think about the length of time. Eighteen years is a LONG time and much had changed in the life of the woman during that
The text tells us that Jesus simply spoke to the woman and her infirmity was gone! But I don't think it was just His words that healed her, but the text also says that Jesus touched her! He laid hands on her. Now I am not a Pentecostal faith healer. I'm not a name it and claim it guy. I don't think that God endows people with the power to heal like He did in the New Testament, but I still believe that God heals and touches people in unique and special ways. We as believers should not discredit the ability of the great physician to touch the life of people. We cannot afford to allow our malady to become bigger then our faith in God.
The second thing I want to point out about the hands of Jesus is that they are compassionate. The compassionate hands of Jesus are richly placed on every page of the Gospels but the example that stands our to me can be found in Matthew 8:1-4 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+8%3A1-4&version=ESV). Jesus had just finished preaching is considered His greatest sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. People began to crowd Jesus to ask Him questions about His remarkable teaching. But one man in particular approached Jesus. As he approached you could hear the crowd yelling "unclean, unclean." The people would have parted from this man like the water did at the Red Sea. This man was a leper.
Leprosy was the scourge of the ancient world. It was a slow death certificate while you were alive. The illness would kill your pain sensors and cause you to be unable to feel anything at all. It also effected your skin making you look almost inhuman and undesirable to be looked upon. You would no longer be able to grasp anything. For this man that meant that he would not have been able to work. What good is a fisherman that can't feel the ropes, or a farmer the plow, or the tools for a carpenter. A person that suffered with leprosy would get severely injured and not feel the pain. Many times they would lose toes or fingers without feeling an ounce of pain.
The physical damage was terrible but the social effects were just as bad if not worse. Leprosy demanded that you be an outcast from society, forbidden from being near those that you love. A leper wouldn't be able to shake hands, steal a kiss, hold hands, play catch with your kids, you wouldn't even be able to tap you on your shoulder. This man would have to leave everything that he knew and loved. He would have stared into his wife's eyes one last time with tears wanting to embrace her, or maybe to the pain knowing that you would not be able to hold your kids again. Fathom having to walk away from your home with ZERO hope that you will ever return. Leprosy was a disease that didn't just steal your health, it stole your life.
Everyone in Matthew's account was stepping away from this man, but Jesus came to this man. Everyone was yelling unclean but Jesus called out "be clean!" The leper was healed by the words of Jesus, but notice in the text that the Bible says that Jesus touched the man before healing him. WOW! Jesus touched the outcast. It might had been years since this man had felt a physical touch from Jesus. Why did Jesus touch him if it wasn't His hand that healed the leper? I think the reason why was to show COMPASSION. Jesus committed what would have been considered a huge no-no by touching this man, but compassion knows not bounds. Jesus shows this man, that crowd, and us that there is no such thing as someone too far gone or an outcast beyond His long reach.
I doubt many of us reading this had ever met a leper before, but we surely have treated people as lepers. We treat people as lepers when we do not grant them compassion. I have pastored for thirteen years and I have seen Christians ostracize a litany of people; people like those that were divorced, single mothers, immigrants, or somebody of a different skin color. Compassion should not be meted out to those who are like us nor those of us who we think deserve it. Compassion should be granted to all and shown by us as believers. Let our hands not be self righteous but instead let them be used to comfort, encourage, and build up.
The final point I want to note about the hands of Jesus is that they were crucified hands. All four Gospel's point this out but I want to just focus on Luke 23:32-38 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23%3A32-38&version=ESV). The hands that touched the blinded eyes, embraced the little children, scolded the Pharisees, broke the bread, washed the disciples feet were turned over to be crucified by cruel men with cruel purposes. Nails would pierce the precious hands of Jesus Christ. I once heard a preacher say that the three nails had names to them. The name of the first was "God", the second "loves", and the third "you." The name of those three nails were God loves you. Truly man made nails nor a man made cross could never hold the Savior of the world. It was love, love for you that held Him there.
His hands were stretched apart on the cross, taking upon Himself the sin of the world (your sin). It was there that Jesus removed our sin as far as the East is from the West. It was there that our sin was drown in the sea of God's forgetfulness. I'm reminded of the words in Zechariah thirteen. In that chapter people ask the question "where did you receive these wounds in your hands" and the response from Jesus is that He received them in the house of His friends. Jesus was wounded, beaten, suffered, and died for you because He loves you. His hands have the power to cleanse, His hands are compassionate, and His hands were crucified to take away your sin and take you to be with Him forever in heaven. Have you trusted in Him?
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