They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.
What was it about Jesus that was so polarizing? What was it that made people so intent on finding something against him as to ignore the overwhelming goodness of his miraculous deeds? Was it the fact that acknowledging his greatness necessarily meant acknowledging one's own smallness and inadequacy? Was it the way Jesus captivated the crowds, who hung on his every word, easily achieving the popularity which the Pharisees themselves desired to possess? How sad that a lack of humility and envy of the goodness of Jesus could close and harden people's hearts to the power of his love.
Then he said to the Pharisees,
“Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”
The Pharisees claimed to be rigorists when it came to the law but had in fact lost sight of the point of the law itself. They were now using the law as a pretense to pursue hostility toward Jesus when it was designed rather to ensure freedom and to promote life. They sought to do evil to Jesus and to destroy his life, which was obviously as deeply contrary to the law as something could be.
Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus was moved to anger and grieved at their hardness of heart. He was moved by his anger to act, and his mercy to do so in a way that was directly provocative toward the Pharisees. He courageously acted immediately before their eyes even though it led to the Pharisees taking counsel with the Herodians about putting him to death. But he did it not merely in spite of them but also for them, for his death was a death that was for all humanity. If anything could crack the hardness of their hearts that would be it.
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The man with the withered hand was healed. But it was the Pharisees who had truly forgotten Jerusalem in a way that would make their right hand forget its skill (see Psalm 137:5-6). Thus Jesus healing the man with the withered hand was an invitation to them and to us to remember the works of the Lord and to be healed, to learn to once more set Jerusalem above our highest joy.
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