Nailed Hands

(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WEUHBOvpfdhDuIr7wVx79)

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. (Mark 15:24)

The cross is known for nailed hands. We cannot think of the cross without a picture of nails piercing the hands. Some artistic re-enactments picture ropes additionally tying him to the cross, presumably to help hold his weight. But we aren’t told that in Scripture.

I cannot imagine in any way that the nailing process was anything but sheer brutality. Rough, excessive treatment, administered by a soldier who I will guess had done this many times before and was ready to get on with it and get it over with. Soldiers’ feet were stepping on Jesus’ arms with direct and persistent pressure while the heavy mallet crushed the crude nails into the hardened wood. (And by the way, to speed things along, was it one soldier on each hand, pounding in unison? We usually think of it as one at a time, but I wonder.) To get into the wood, they had to go through his flesh, tissue, and bone. Blood was no doubt squirting everywhere while the victim was undergoing total pain, like blackout pain. It appears to be a total, physical overwhelming.

Interestingly, when crooks are caught, they are ‘hand-cuffed’. Their power to fight back with their hands and arms is taken away with the cuffs. That’s another indication of total overwhelming! Added to that, any desire or response for offense or defense that might rise up within the nailed-one is neutralized. There is no capability to position oneself for attack, nor to shield oneself from attack.

Apart from the helplessness or inability to strike back (should that have been the activated, normal human response!), there is a huge issue of suffocation. The cross gave way to suffocation. Stretched out, nailed up hands and arms gave way to total inability to breathe. How basic is that? The thirsty throat of Jesus speaks to the basic human need for water. The nailed hands affect the basic need to breathe.

So, not just the pain of the nails overcame the prisoner (can you even imagine what that was like to be suspended on cross beams with nails in place holding the weight of a man?), but coupled with the pain of not breathing gives us a scenario so excruciating we can hardly get our minds around it.

Obviously, he ceded power over his body and self to others. He let others do with him as they wished. That included inflict him with unimaginable pain through his hands, and take away from him the ability to breathe freely.

This was part of the sacrificial path he freely chose, “for the joy set before him.”

“Father, we have a hard time grasping the extent of the pain Jesus suffered by having his hands nailed to the old rugged cross—but again today, we say thank you.”