Hands the Size of Hams
This morning during my study I was challenged to compare the unjust judge from Jesus’ parable in Luke 18, with God. In case you forgot the story, a widow was seeking justice from a judge. She wanted the judge punish the person who had committed a crime against her. I get it. I am a widow and I want people who hurt me to have to pay. Regardless, this widow kept returning to the judge again and again and again. Finally the judge granted her request just because she kept bugging him.
In my study I was asked to describe the judge. The Bible says that he “neither feared God, nor respected man.” So in my overactive imagination this is what I came up with: He was an extremely large man. He also was excessively hairy; dark, thick, curly hair, coming out of his ears and his nose. He spoke using a loud and boisterous voice. He had a laugh that was rough and gruff, and often laughed at people’s pain and hardship. He had a stern look on his face, and it was hard to see his eyes because they were all screwed up in a squint. He had hands the size of hams, that he frequently liked to slam down on whatever was near to emphasize his point. He was completely devoid of compassion.
O.K. that was my picture of the judge. Scary, I know. So how about God? Well, we cannot know what God really looks like, because no one has ever seen Him. I used to tell my four year old friends that God was so bright, and so holy, and so beautiful, that if we looked at him, our eyes would have burned up. Yeah, probably a little to graphic, but I think they got the point.
But we do know that Jesus is the exact representation of God. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 53 that “he had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” I am going to interpret that to mean Jesus was not a large man, and that when he walked into a room, all the girls did not swoon over His appearance. Neither do I believe that was He imposing.
Jesus never laughs at my pain. In fact He tells me to come to Him.
I believe that Jesus’ voice was and still is tender and gentle. His face and eyes are full of love and compassion. And His hands are definitely not the size of hams. I do not know how big they are, but I do know that they have nail prints in them. One day I will put my finger in those nail prints and fall, face to the floor, in worship, adoration, and awe, that He loved and died for a “ragamuffin” like me.
How does Jesus look to you?
