Pre-Eucharist prayer by Moff
LORD Jesus, there is so much we don’t know about You. Did you have light or dark eyes? What did Your voice sound like? What did your laugh sound like? When you cried, did your nose turn red like mine does? Were you tall or short?
So much that we don’t know about what you looked, sounded, smelled like… but we know a little about your hands. You were a carpenter. Those hands worked, and they undoubtedly saw injury from time to time. I imagine thick, calloused fingers, with strong muscles in the forearms… probably a few scars, too, from poorly aimed hammers or other such accidents.
Those hands healed, too, but in a very earthy way. They drew lines in the dirt when a woman caught in adultery was brought to you for judgement. They rubbed spit and mud on a blind man’s eyes so that he could see. You laid them directly on the bodies of lepers and dead people, and skin was regenerated and stopped hearts started beating
again.
Those hands that worked and healed tore a loaf of bread on the night before they were torn. Those hands gave food to your friends the night before they were tied to a wooden beam and driven through with spikes.
And here is a paradox: Those hands, scarred, dirty, and covered in blood, were clean. Pilate’s hands, uncalloused and washed clean with water, were covered in blood.
Things are not always as they seem.
Just because we can’t see you doesn’t mean we can’t see you. Without seeing your hands with our eyes, we see your hands in the world, and in us, moving our hands in your service as we live and work. Those who saw you on earth, those who could actually touch you, didn’t understand who you were. Thomas, putting his fingers through the holes in your hands, only barely understood even then.
These symbols of bread and wine represent you, whom we cannot touch with our hands. Touch us, LORD, through these sacraments, which we take in remembrance of you.
