Behold My Hands

What is the only man made thing in heaven? I believe it is the scars on the body of Jesus. What do those scars teach us?

When one goes on vacation, they so often bring back a souvenir. When Jesus visited earth as the God-man, he brought back a souvenir, but it was not something cheap and temporary. He still bears those wounds if I understand Revelation correctly. For in Revelation we find Jesus standing as "a Lamb as it had been slain." Here stands the Lamb of God with the marks of Calvary still upon it. This description in Revelation along with other verses seems to indicate that the marks of Jesus’ death remain unaltered throughout eternity as a constant reminder of the cost of our redemption.

Jesus admonishes Thomas to, "Behold my hands." Scars tell a story. Let us see what we can glean from our mediation upon the hands of Jesus.

I. The nail-scarred hands are the EVIDENCE of PASSION.

Thomas, even, in his unbelief, is wise; he turns to the Lord’s wounds and scars for comfort. His wounds are never failing consolation.

The wounds inform me that Jesus suffered. Pain and suffering is a problem that is all too common for man. However, why did God suffer? Those wounds in His hands speak of great suffering. When we have pain or suffering we do not normally chose it, but Jesus chose pain and suffering. Why chose suffering?

The nail-scarred hands are the tokens of the Saviour’s love. Why the wounds in your hands? Why the suffering of the cross? Simply because God loves us!

Romans 5:8

Galatians 2:20 "....the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Ephesians 5:2...."Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us."

Galatians 1:4 "who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world."

A. The PERSON of Love

B. The PRICE of love

Those scars remind us of the greatness of love.

C. The PURPOSE of love

deliver us from bondage...His death was a rescue operation, the only possible means of saving men form the doomed world and for eternal death by providing for them eternal life.

His wounds are the tokens of His love for us.

There was once a lady who had to go into the hospital for surgery. The hospital priest came to see here and after a little while asked her, "Are there any sins in your life that you need to confess to me."

She very politely replied, "Let me see you hands." The priest held them out and after carefully examining them she stated, "I’m sorry, you can’t forgive sins. The only one who can forgive me of my sins has nail prints in His hands."

There is no restoration for a sinking faith like the sight of the wounded Saviour! How can God ever forget you and I? We are eternally graven upon the palms of His hands.

II. The nail-scarred hands are the CONFIDENCE of PITY

Jesus knows what physical pain means. He knows what a broken heart means. Can you not perceive that? Those prints upon His hands declare that He understands pain. Gaze at His wounds and find comfort! Hebrews reminds us that we do not have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Those souvenirs that Jesus took back to heaven declare to us that He has been there. He understands our pain.

The Chinese, when they paint the word for love, paint an emblem for love and superimpose on it an emblem for pain. That is the highest kind of love that they know, pain love. God’s love allows humanity to suffer, and then God’s love suffers with humanity.

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW HUMANITY TO SUFFER? The cruelest thing that God could do for fallen humanity is to allow them to live in a painless world. See Genesis 3:17. God not curse the ground for their judgment but for their sake. The ground was cursed for their sake because God loved them. If it were not for pain, fallen humanity would never know anything was wrong. PAIN IS A GIFT THAT TELLS YOU SOMETHING IS WRONG.

A. Pain has a protecting purpose.

Dr. Paul Brand, an imminent hand surgeon and who worked for over twenty years with lepers said, "I would not eliminate pain because pain is too valuable.... I can tell the health of the body in many ways by its ability to sense pain." Lepers lose the ability to feel, they lose their ability to sense pain, and as a result, many things happen to damage them because they no have the protecting power of pain. God allows pain for a protecting purpose.

B. Pain has a correcting purpose.