Jesus' Hands Are Tied

We are living out the final day of a School year now almost gone down. We thank God for this, His chosen privilege to us, to have allowed us to live another entire School and Church year, from beginning to end. We must spend this time in deep, sincere praise and thanks to God for His Sovereign mercies. We acknowledge that He is Ruler and Lord of all. He is the Supreme, the Most High and absolutely none can withstand His Almighty powers.

Think seriously about this, with holy fear and trembling. Our One, Triune God, is the One and the Only One at that, who has not just kept us all, the just and the unjust, the sheep and the goats, but He has done so, all on His merit. Whether you have been bad or good; whether you trust God or not; whether your faith is in Him or another god, whether you care to worship Him or not; and whether you love Him or not, God has showered this blessing upon you. He has brought you through an entire ecclesiastical and academic year, to see its going down. God has done it all because of Himself and His Sovereign Love.

It is the same Sovereign Love which we see on the Cross, fading, dying, going down for the world, a dark, sinful and cruel world, for He loved us ere we knew Him. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Romans 5: 8.

Jesus, You who are with us in Spirit, we have come to this hour with You, O Light of the world. We are walking with You, as You talk with us, administering, admonishing and molding us to be as You are. Grant us ears to hear and heed, and eyes to look and see, that we may not be condemned as people who have received, but have refused You. Thank You for Your ever calling Love. Amen! 

Jesus has died for every single sinner, but not every single sinner will believe in Him. Through unbelief then, many will not receive His personal and powerful works. Many will only receive condemnation instead of salvation. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3: 18 – 19.  When this happens, the Hands of Jesus are tied, as it were, to do all that He has come to do for us, His people, His Church. 

Here is a picture of Jesus, where His hands are tied to work His mighty works. As Jesus walks and talks with us and we with Him, may we lose nothing of what we are being taught.

This is what Mark 6: 5 tells us. Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. Jesus, Light and Truth, has come into His own town place, His own people, where He is known by almost everybody. He is in the place where He grew up. He is in no pagan place, where God is not worshipped. Jesus is not among strangers, He is among His own. It is in this homely place that Jesus could not do His mighty works. It is among His own people that His Hands are tied, for people refuse His Light. His own have chosen to remain in the darkness of ignorance, pride and self-deceit.

However, amidst all the darkness of unbelief and dishonour, in an atmosphere of speculation, questioning and the contempt of familiarity, there is a glimmer of light and hope. As these people, who belong to Jesus, are going down as the condemned of the Lord, because they love darkness rather than light, we do not want to begin the rising of a new dawn, a new Church year, in darkness. We take hope and comfort that even among Jesus’ own people, where He marveled because of their unbelief, Mark 6: 6a, we are able to be bathed in this Light of His. He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

We carry on seeing and hearing, as we walk and talk with Jesus and He walks and talks with us.