They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
What are we watching closely, waiting to make accusations? About whom are assuming the worst, waiting for them to fulfill the negative expectations we have of them? When challenged like this way are quick to protest that they are not Jesus. But "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (see Matthew 25:40). If we're too busy prophesying negativity it is likely that negative results are what we will see. If we want to see something else, if we want to see transformation in the world, we need faith and hope.
We tend to get set in our ways, fixed in our expectations. We have made decisions about where and when it is lawful to do good and we don't look to find it anywhere else. Our faith doesn't reach out to welcome it from anywhere else. Our prayer doesn't invite it from anywhere else. There is a sense in which we could all stand to embrace the quote attributed to Malcolm X: "I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."
Jesus is grieved at our hardness of heart. He wants us to be ready to welcome goodness in circumstances where it seems to us unlikely to be found. Jesus wants to surprise us with the places he can make his healing power manifest. He wants us to understand that there is no time or place where his love can't break through.
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
We are meant to see the power of Jesus to heal on display but the Pharisees could only see a rule breaker. He placed this healing very intentionally right before their eyes. The withered hand was clearly visible. But rather than being moved by it, as he would have had them be, they hardened their hearts. This risk continues to exist for us as well. There is nothing that will accelerate our descent into tribalism like hardening our hearts at good done by those we consider to be 'the other side', by those who are our enemies.
Jesus is able to save us from ourselves, from our expectations, and our assumptions. He is not limited by mortal life. He sees beyond the horizons of our narrow concerns. He is the true king of peace, our high priest forever. His offering is what makes possible our own peace, our own access to life that cannot be destroyed. But to possess that life we need to be willing to lay our own lives down, including insofar as they manifest in our old ways of thinking that still need redemption. We still think thoughts that are very much characteristic of lives headed for destruction. Jesus offers us renewed minds as an alternative, thoughts characterized by faith, actions marked by hope and love. Let us not give him just "a tenth of everything" but our very selves.
Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.
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