TOPIC:‌“The Christ of the Pierced Hands”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌John 20:24-29

 

‌‌“But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of nails…

‌‌I will not believe” (John 20:25)

 

‌There are two moving incidents in the New Testament of men who had something done to their hands. The man in Mark chapter 3 had a WITHERED hand that was healed, while the Son of Man in John chapter 20 had WOUNDED hands which were pierced. As a matter of fact, the wounded hands of Christ were predicted by David the Psalmist when he wrote these words regarding the suffering Savior: “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalms 22:16). The difference between the hands of Jesus and all other men are the nail-scars found upon them.

 

‌Though the New Testament writers do not tell us much about the physical appearance of Jesus, they do mention approximately forty-five times about the hands of our blessed Lord. They were hands of action and achievement. Always moving and always doing. Jesus was the passionate performer with those hands of His. He declared:  “I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day” (John 9:4). At Bethlehem His hands were clean and innocent, but at Calvary they were marred and scarred for us.

 

‌What I would like to do in this message is to take a closer look at these pierced hands of Jesus and discover what they were like and what they accomplished. Let's begin our investigation.

 

I.

 

‌Let us consider, for one thing, that the pierced hands of Jesus are HOLY. Not just His hands, but the whole life of Jesus from the time He was born until the time He was crucified on that cruel cross was untainted by sin of any kind. He was the pattern of perfect living. The Apostle Paul said of Christ: “Who knew no sin” (II Corinthians 5:21), while the Apostle Peter describes Him this way: “Who did no sin” (I Peter 2:22). The writer of Hebrews writes of Jesus in these words: “In all points tempted like as we are yet without sin” (Hebrews 4;15). The hands of Jesus were soiled by service but never stained by sin.

 

‌But such is not true of us! Our hands are soiled and stained by all kinds of besetting sins. They desperately need to be cleansed by the grace of God. For if our hands remain marred by sin, we shall not be able really to live or really to pray. This is precisely what St. Paul was writing about to young Timothy when he said: “I would, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands” (I Timothy 2:8). In other words, hands that have been . . .