“And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.”
Mark 14:65

Many years ago, I attended a Sunday School party in the teacher’s home.  We had a lot of fun and a lot of good food to eat.  After we had played games and ate, she went into another room and told us to follow her.  It was then that the sacrifice of Jesus became real to me for the first time.

There on the floor was a large wooden cross and lying beside it was a lot of hammers and nails.  She had us take a legal pad and write down everything we had done wrong in our life, all the times we had sinned.  I am ashamed to say it, but my paper was filled.

She then had us take a hammer and nails and for every sin that we had put down, for every time that we had hurt Jesus, we had to hammer a nail into the cross.  There are no words to describe the agony I experienced as I pounded countless nails into the cross.  However, my agony was nothing compared to the agony that Jesus went through at Calvary.  Sad to say, He is still being subjected to agony today.

Every time we hurt someone and do things that bring shame upon the Name of Jesus, we might as well pick up a hammer and nails and hammer them into the Heart of Jesus.  May God forgive us for our lack of love and compassion for others!

If someone handed you a hammer and nails, how many nails would you have to hammer into the Heart of Jesus?

June 6, 2005