Somewhere I remember reading these lines.
The hands of Jesus seem so frail
For they were broken by a nail.
But they will get to heaven at last
Who to those broken hands hold fast.
The piercing of His hands and feet was prophesied by David a thousand years before it happened in the twenty second Psalm, when he declared: “They pierced My hands and My feet”
At a crucifixion the nails pierced no vital organ. Neither were the heart, brain, or artery, pierced to hasten death. This meant a person could live for days in the agony of crucifixion. However they did not take the life of Jesus; He gave it willingly. In John ten He Himself had said: “No one taketh My life from Me, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
When the nails were driven through the hands of Jesus, there is a further dimension to the piercing of the nails that we need to consider.
Paul tells us in Colossians 2:12-14; “Having been buried with him by baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say did he make alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses; having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and He hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.”
When the hands of Jesus were nailed to the cross, my sins were nailed there also on the cross. This needs to be pondered and fervently considered during the Communion service. The hands that were pierced by nails were pierced for me. Now listen to the words of the gospel hymn that tells us:
There was One who was willing to die in my stead
That a soul so unworthy might live.
And the path to the cross He was willing to tread
All the sins of my life to forgive.
They are nailed to the cross, they are nailed to the cross
Oh how much He was willing to bear
With what anguish and loss, Jesus went to the cross
But He carried my sins with Him there.
This is what Jesus had in mind when He said, “This do in remembrance of Me.”