His Head

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Isaac Watts

We do well to heed these words of Isaac Watts – to fix our eyes on the head, hands and feet of our Lord on “the wondrous cross”, and to consider what these bleeding body parts communicate. And God, using Watts's call to consider these parts of Jesus' body at Golgotha, has put it in my mind that it would also be beneficial to consider and learn the lessons of Jesus’ head, hands and feet from other times and places, too … and to learn from some of the other parts of His body, as well. So I propose to put together a few articles, over the coming weeks, looking at Jesus’ head, hands and feet (at Golgotha, with Watts; and elsewhere, too), and at a few other parts of His body as well.

And we begin, first of all, with Jesus’ head.

And let me remind you, in the first place, that Jesus had “nowhere to lay” it. “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Luke 9:58). Jesus went about preaching, healing, and doing good for those three years, staying here and there, with no home of His own. He never ‘slept in His own bed’, as most of us so prefer to do. He never put His head on His own pillow at night. Why? Because He was committed to His mission – committed to doing the Father’s will, and bringing good news to the masses. Praise God for such a Savior!

And praise God, too, for that occasion when “a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head” (Matthew 26:7). This lavish gift speaks to us of the great value she saw in the Savior – and that we should see, too! He is worthy of all the blessing and generosity we can pour on His head! Her gift also (Matthew 26:12) points us forward to Jesus’ impending death – “she did it to prepare Me for burial.”

And, as Watts's words remind us, as Jesus made His way toward that death, His precious head was pounded with a reed (Mark 15:19), and crowned with thorns (John 19:2), as part of His suffering for the sins of His people. And He went through with these things because He loves His church! Indeed He loved us so much that He finally “bowed his head” in death for us!

So, my friends, consider the head of our Lord Jesus, learn its lessons, and lavish it with your praise!