“One Pair Of Hands”
Mark 1:40-42
David P. Nolte
Hands – some are gnarled and misshapen with arthritis; some are calloused and stiff from years of labor; some are smooth, delicate and well cared for.
Hands can hurt or help, strike or soothe, grasp or give; exclude or embrace.
Hands lift us up when we fall; hands hold onto ours when we walk together to show the way to go; and hands carry our burdens.
Today I want to think about one special, unique pair of hands – the hands of Jesus. They were the very hands of God encased in human form.
Jesus had just completed healing many people and then enjoyed an early morning prayer time with His Father. He returned to His disciples, and then a leper came to Him “beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” Mark 1:40-42 (NASB).
One pair of hands and we should recognize and appreciate the Hands Of Jesus because:
I. THEY ARE WILLING HANDS:
A. Here we meet a man who had been rejected, cast out, neglected, forsaken, and banned.
1. He approached Jesus in urgency and desperation – what did he have to lose? He was already a dead man walking.
2. He approached Jesus in uncertainty – he was unsure that He would cleanse him.
3. He approached Jesus with just a small bit of hope for the willingness of Jesus.
B. But he did come, and Jesus said, “I am willing.” He meant:
1. “I want to heal you.”
2. “It is my pleasure to heal you.”
3. “It makes me happy to heal you.”
C. And He stretched out His hand and touched him.
1. He couldn’t remember the last time someone touched him.
2. He had not enjoyed the embrace of wife or child or friend for so long.
3. And, now, Jesus actually touched him and was pleased to do it.
D. Who are you willing to touch?
1. We have shut-ins who need a loving touch.
2. There are people in the Helping Hands Shelter who need a kind touch.
3. Some our recently hospitalized folk need a gentle touch.
4. There are forsaken and forgotten people who need an embracing touch.
E. It is important that we be willing to do the right thing without coercion. That reminds me of a story in Reader’s Digest. A young man and his fiancé met with her pastor to sign some pre-wedding ceremony papers. While filling out the form, the young man read the some of the questions aloud. When he got to the one which read: "Are you entering this marriage at your own free-will?" he looked over at his fiancé. "Put down 'Yes,'" she said.
God wants us, willingly, to put down “yes” when He calls us to touch the untouchable, to include the outcast, to befriend the forsaken. Think of that one pair of hands and remember:
II. THEY ARE POWERFUL HANDS:
A. This “untouchable” was touched by and cleansed by powerful hands of the man who would walk on water, feed the multitudes, cast out demons, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and life to the dead. And that touch changed his entire life from that day on.
B. The song spoke about His powerful hands:
“One pair of hands healed the sick;
One pair of hands raised the dead.
One pair of hands stilled the raging storm
And thousands of people were fed.
Those hands are so strong
so when life goes wrong
Put your faith into one pair of hands.”
C. Have you been touched by His powerful hands?
1. That may not mean a physical healing – not everyone is healed and the time will come for each of us to die.
a. But the greatest healing will be a heavenly one where we are in the presence of Jesus, not suffering anymore.
b. And, if physical healing is not in His plan, He will heal your weakness, fear, apprehension and anxiety.
2. For sure, His powerful touch will enable you to persist, to persevere, to prevail.
D. The Bible says in reference to His great power:
1. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, y to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB).
2. “Although He was crucified in weakness, He now lives by the power of God.” 2 Corinthians 13:4 (NLT2).
3. And He transferred that power to everyone He touched.
E. Perhaps you have seen the Galaxy S10 cell phone commercial that shows that phone transferring power from its battery to that of another phone by placing them one on top of the other? Jesus does better – the Bible says, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” Isaiah 40:29 (NLT2).
His hands are powerful hands and:
III. THEY ARE COMPASSIONATE HANDS:
A. Jesus was moved by compassion, not stuck in revulsion, and His touch was gentle.
1. Here were the labor hardened hands of a carpenter, but they had the tenderness of a father holding his child.
2. Here were the pure hands of the sinless Jesus gently touching the disgusting body of an impure man.
B. Compassion is not weakness, it is power under control. Jesus is the epitome of compassion!
1. The author of Hebrews wrote about Jesus, “So then, since we have a great High Priest Who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT2).
2. The compassionate Jesus gently directed that power to graciously and mercifully cleanse this poor leper.
C. Can you think of a time when Jesus stretched out his hand and compassionately touched you?
D. And have you touched someone else with compassion:
1. When they were in grief?
2. When they were in distress?
3. When they were discouraged?
4. When they were lonely?
5. When they were in pain?
6. When they failed?
E. Let me illustrate the power of compassion: Raymond Dunn, Jr. was born in New York State in 1975. It was reported at the time of his birth, the baby had a skull fracture and severe oxygen deprivation, causing extreme brain damage.
As he grew, he suffered up to 20 seizures a day; he was blind; he was mute; and he was unable to move any part of his body. In addition, he had allergies to everything except one kind of food. And that food is all he could eat. It was a meat based product that was only made by the Gerber baby food company.
In 1985, Gerber Foods stopped making that food. In despair, his mother traveled throughout the country, buying up all the formula she could find in stores. But in 1990, her supply simply ran out.
Knowing her son would die without it, she appealed to the Gerber Food Company on compassionate grounds to start remaking it so her son could live. The employees of the company listened; and, in an unprecedented action, they volunteered hundreds of hours, above their normal work shifts, and brought out the old equipment to start making that food again. For just one boy. For no profit.
In January 1995, Raymond Dunn, Jr., known as the "Gerber Boy," died from his physical problems. However, through his suffering he was the motivation for Gerber’s act of compassion.
The situations in which we find ourselves and the people we meet that need our compassion will be very different than the leper cleansed by Jesus, but the issue remains exactly the same: “How will we respond when compassion is called for?”
Jesus’ hands were compassionate hands and finally,
IV. THEY ARE NAIL-SCARRED HANDS:
A. The song said,
“One pair of hands said ‘I love you,’
and those hands were nailed to the tree
Those hands are so strong
so when life goes wrong
Put your faith into one pair of hands.”
B. Remember this:
1. The righteous died for the unrighteous.
2. The hero died for the villain.
3. The Creator died for the creature.
C. Those hands that only showed love were nailed to the cross.
1. But it wasn’t nails, though, that held Jesus on the cross, it was His love for us that made Him pay that cost.
2. On that cross He paid a debt He did not owe because I owed a debt I could not pay!
D. This is Amazing Grace, unfailing love, unending mercy and infinite determination that would make Him take our place and bear our cross to save us.
E. James, a 12 year old boy with a tender heart, couldn’t stand to see his 14 year old sister going through difficulties. Though younger, he became her knight in shining armor and protector. One day she carelessly spilled spaghetti sauce on the new couch and just knew her parents would go ballistic when they got home. James cleaned up the mess as well as he could and when the parents drove into the driveway, he met them and said, “I did something really stupid, but I will use my allowance to fix it.” “What did you do?” He told them about the stain on the couch and took the blame for it. It cost him 3 months allowance to pay the cleaning bill but it gained him the undying gratitude of his sister who, ashamed of her behavior, eventually admitted her part in the matter and repaid her brother.
James did what Jesus did when on the cross He took our blame, paid our debt, died our death, and purchased our forgiveness.
There is no way we could ever repay Him, but we can express gratitude by making Him Lord of Life and obeying Him unconditionally.
If you have not done so, will you put your hand into the hand of Jesus, the One who loves you most, and let Him lead you from here all the way to heaven? Do that as we strand and sing “Precious Lord, Take My Hand!”
