You are in Good Hands

“No one can snatch you out of My hands”

John 10:28b

Have you ever noticed that Jesus never refers to us as “my lions,” or “my tigers” or “my bulls?”   He doesn’t want to leave the impression that we can handle life on our own.  He wants us to understand that we need Him.  For that reason Jesus calls us, “my sheep.”   Sheep are among the dumbest and most helpless animals there are. I read of one big old fat ewe that each day would lay itself down and get stuck in the same ditch.  Each day the farmer would have to pull it out with the truck.  How much is that like you or me – committing the same sin again and again and again?   At one of the church’s I served in Nebraska, I remember coming out of the church one afternoon to find a little flock of 8 sheep following each other in a circle.  3 hours later they were still there, walking in that circle. They would never find their way home on their own.  On our own we would never find our way home to God.  Sheep are defenseless.  A sheep can do nothing to fight off a wolf.  Even so in our spiritual enemies – sin and death and Satan you and I face enemies far greater than we are.  Like sheep, you and I need a shepherd.  That’s who Jesus has been for you and me since baptism.  Listen to His promise. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” 

Think for a moment about our Shepherd’s hands. His hands are first of all strong hands.   Jesus was a man’s man.  Working as a carpenter with Joseph, He knew hard work.  He has hands strong enough to reach out and rescue us in need.  Remember the story of Peter walking on the water. When Peter began to sink, Jesus reached out His strong hands to catch Peter and bring him back into the boat.  Those hands are also strong enough to catch you no matter what you face – the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, a divorce, an illness.  Remember the poem footprints?  A man looking back over his life sees two sets of footprints as the Lord has walked with him.  He is puzzled by the fact that in the worst moments of life there is only one set of footprints. The Lord says to him, “That’s when I picked you up and carried you.”  The Lord’s hands are strong enough to carry you through anything.

His hands are compassionate hands.  Because he was tempted in every way as we are Jesus is able, the Bible says, to sympathize with our weaknesses.   When they brought little children to him, He took them up in His arms and blessed them.  Or think of the ten lepers.  Yet Jesus didn’t just heal these men. He did what no Jew would do. He reached out his hands to touch them.  That’s the tenderness and compassion our shepherd has towards you and me.  He’s walked around in our shoes and knows what we face every day. So in compassion He reaches out to touch us.  He takes us in His arms at baptism. He feed us at His table in Holy Communion.  He gives us family, Pastors, friends with a hug and a listening ear.

He hands are scarred and yet living hands.  This may be the most important thing of all about the hands of Jesus.  Think of how those scarred hands transformed the doubts of Thomas to faith.  Those wounds are there because nails were driven through His hands into a cross.  Those wounds are there because Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins!  He was wounded for our transgression.”  Yet those hands are living hands because our Lord rose from the dead.  He is alive.  Our sins are paid for.  Death has been defeated.  You and I are forgiven.  In Jesus we will live forever.  One of the constants of my life, and of ministry is to encounter in myself and in others a struggle to believe that God could really love someone like me!  His scarred living hands leave no doubt.  God really does love you and me!”

Too often we forget about all of this.  Too often we focus on our weak hands holding His rather than His strong hands holding ours!  That’s why I love the story of the little boy and his father walking down an icy sidewalk.  When the father wants to hold his sons hand, the little boy insists, “No daddy, let me hold your hand.”  With little fingers he can barely grab his father’s big hand.  So when they come to this ice, the little boys grip isn’t strong enough.  He slips and falls.  Then the father says, “Now let me hold your hand” and wraps his big hand around his son’s hand.  This time when they come to the ice the boys feet slip and slide, and yet he doesn’t fall.  Why? Because the father’s hand is strong.  That’s the assurance here – our shepherd’s hands and our Father’s hands are strong.  They have hold of us.  And just as Jesus has promised, “No one can snatch us out of their hands!”  Amen.