“As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’” — Matthew 17:22–23, ESV

Easter is about hands. Look at your own. There are stories and ten thousand choices—opening, closing, grasping, giving, directing. Hands are invitations. Hands are deliverers.

God formed the hands of Christ inside Mary. Like the hands of any infant, they developed in the dark communion of her body. And when they met the light, they commenced: touching, pulling, gripping. Those same hands would grow and lengthen. They would carry utensils, caress cloth, hold a hammer, clutch other hands. They would point and clap and gesture. God meets His creatures with fingers and palms. 

But, Jesus said, His hands would be delivered to others. His whole life would be set inside the haughty hands of lesser men. They would stop His hands from moving. They would nail them to splintered posts. The fingers that once danced inside Mary’s womb would writhe, then slow, and then . . . halt. No movement. No more giving and taking. The extended hands of God’s hope and grace would lie still as stone, put back in the darkness.

But that is not Easter. Easter is the beautifully irrational news that God’s hands moved again. His fingers were raised with the rest of His body—immediately set to folding His burial clothes and placing them neatly in the tomb. People cannot still God’s hands. Ever. That is Easter. 

Look at your hands again. Those hands, in Adam, took what did not belong to them. But those hands, in Christ, received what cannot be stolen. Now you live for the hope that is in you, in your very fingertips, as you move one handbreadth at a time closer to heaven. There we will grip Christ and never let go. There our hands will look much the same and very different.

Until then, let your body be a reminder: Holiness is a matter of hands and fingers. Praise God for giving them to us. May His Spirit help us to keep giving them for others.

Author Bio:

Pierce Taylor Hibbs is Senior Writer and Communication Specialist at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Struck Down but Not Destroyed, The Book of Giving, One with God, and Our Hope Is in Help. He and his wife, Christina, live in Pennsylvania with their three kids, Isaac, Nora, and Heidi. Learn more about his work at piercetaylorhibbs.com.

Additional Resources for Easter:

Liturgical Living Bundle		Why Did Jesus Have to Die?		The Prayer Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Prayer		A Year in the Bible | 4 Volume Bundle
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