Monday, April 24, 2006
Luke 24:39 "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself."
THE PRINT OF THE NAILS
In the print of the nails was the proof that this was the Jesus the disciples had known and loved -- had walked and talked with. Those very feet had carried Him the length and breadth of Israel. They had seen those hands touch the blind and the lame, and break bread for them -- and for 1,000's. Those hands had washed their feet and been stretched out on the cross.
It was the same Jesus, their Master and their Friend. How could they not recognize His voice? This was the voice which had patiently explained the Scriptures had said to them, the voice had spoken to them of the Kingdom of God, and therefore of Himself: "I am the Light of the world . . . I am the Bread of Life . . . I am the good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own . . . and I lay down My life for the sheep."
They had seen Him do it. Lay down His life. On Golgota. They had seen His lifeless body taken down; laid on the stone slab. Cold and still. But He was not cold now; as they reached out to take His hands in theirs and as they gripped them tight they could feel His pulse. He was ALIVE!
He'd raised Jairus' little girl, and that young man at Nain, and Lazarus. Now He'd come back -- back from the dead! But His return from death meant so much more than theirs. For one thing, He would never die again.
Risen and glorified, He has full over His body in space and time. He can appear where chooses, when He chooses, how He chooses. And it was His choice that His glorified body should bear the prints of the nails.
Just as He chose the nails Himself. Chose to go up to Jerusalem. Chose to permit His arrest, His trial, His crucifixion. It was the only way he could completely stand in for us -- taking the full brunt of our sins' condemnation -- suffering the death, the separation from God that we deserve.
The nails of His cross speak to us of our sins that put Him there and of His love that would stop at nothing to redeem us from death and hell.
Now the prints of the nails speak to us.
"HE IS RISEN!"
ALLELUIA, SING TO JESUS!
