“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”
Had anyone said anything about evil being permissible or proposed destroying life? Yes, for the murmurings of the Pharisees were indeed to evil purpose, intent on finding an excuse to destroy the life of Jesus. Jesus went on to save a life, to do an act both lawful and good, as a stark contrast to those intent on the destruction of life, as an exposition of the malice of their hidden intent (see Wisdom 2:14)
Looking around at them all, he then said to him,
“Stretch out your hand.”
He looked at everyone in that synagogue as he asked this man to stretch out his hand. There was a sense in which they all needed this healing and a sense in which seeing the healing was meant to challenge them all. Ever since Eve stretched out her hand to take the forbidden fruit she herself lost the ability to use that hand consistently for righteousness, and her children inherited this privation. Everyone, then, in that synagogue, needed healing, yet only those not bent on evil were open to it.
You have heard then the words of Him who says, Stretch forth thy hand. That is a frequent and common cure, and thou that thinkest thy hand is whole, beware lest it be contracted by avarice or sacrilege. Stretch it forth oftener to help thy neighbour, to protect the widow, to save from injury him whom you see the victim of unjust attack; stretch it forth to the poor man who beseeches thee; stretch it forth to the Lord, to ask pardon of thy sins; as the hand is stretched forth so is it healed. (1 Kings 13:5, 6.)- Saint Ambrose
The Sabbath was meant to be an occasion of life, rest, and mercy. It was meant to be a time of ordered toward profound intimacy with God and family. Yet the Pharisees understood the Sabbath in a way that undermined its purpose. They implicitly became accusers of the law by proscribing the possibility of doing good on it.
But if it be not lawful to do good on the sabbath, and the law prohibits the safety of life, thou art become the accuser of the law. For if we examine the very institution of the sabbath, we shall find it was introduced for an object of mercy, for God commanded to keep holy the sabbath, that may rest thy man servant and thy maid servant, and all thy cattle. (Exod. 20:23.) But he who has mercy on his ox, and the rest of his cattle, how much rather will he not have mercy on man troubled with a severe disease?- Cyril of Alexandria
To bring people closer to the purpose for which they were created- it should be obvious that this is fitting for the Sabbath, which was not given to be a burden to creatures, but a great blessing. Especially after the fall, when the curse of sin made work to be a drudgery for man rather than a joy, the Sabbath rest became all the more essential. Jesus desired to bring in more and more people into the fullness of that rest. By contrast, the Pharisees themselves did not taste it and prevented their followers from entering it by their teaching (see Matthew 23:13).
The Pharisees were unable to perceive the riches of the glory of God because they so intoxicated by their own religiosity and self-image. They had become those about whom Isaiah warned, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" see Isaiah 5:20).
To avoid the trap of the mindset of the Pharisees the only alternative is humility, willing to stretch out our withered hand, willing to be seen as sick so that we can be healed, as broken so that we can be made whole. Yet what we receive is so much more than what we once lost. We do not receive merely our hand restored, not just the ability to once more do good and avoid evil, but rather we are incorporated into Christ and he himself comes to dwell in us.
But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,
to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles;
it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.
Our own voice is meant to invite others to stretch their hands for healings. Christ is now in us, the finger of God has come among us (see Luke 11:20), the hope of glory for us and for the world. But this gift must not be contained by excuses or by preoccupation with evil, but rather, must be shared with others, just as Jesus shared it first with us.
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