01.13.08
Through Healing the Man with the Withered Hand (Matt. 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11)
Christ’s Authority over the Sabbath (continued)
Through Healing the Man with the Withered Hand (Matt. 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11)
The third confrontation over the Sabbath took place in the synagogue. Looking at the scene we have a recipe for a fight. The first punch was thrown when the Pharisees challenge Jesus with the question Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? What was the true issue? To enter the controversy they were having on what medication was allowable on the Sabbath.
To illustrate, here are some of the issues (read the 2 final paragraphs on page 167).
The answer came from Jesus by referring to their own practices. If the life on one of their animals were in jeopardy, they would work to keep it. The conclusion is that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So Jesus deflected their punch, and they ended up punching at the air.
However, Jesus wasn’t finished. Christ seeing a man with a withered hand commands him to ’stretch out your hand’.
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. Jesus refused to play by the Pharisees’ rules. After pronouncing that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath (12:12), Jesus did exactly that. He told the man to stretch out his hand. In response to Jesus’ command and with all eyes focused on him, the man stretched his hand out in front of him. The moment he did so, it was restored, as sound as the other. “Restored” means that it became like it had been before. As with the leper (8:3) and the paralytic (9:6-7), Jesus gave this man his life back. The man could work again, and he no longer had to face the embarrassment of his deformity.
No particular action of Jesus is recorded; he told the man to move, and with that movement, healing arrived. Jesus did nothing that could be called “work,” but the Pharisees would not be swayed from their purpose. Jesus had embarrassed them. He had overruled their authority (Luke 6:11) and had exposed their evil attitudes in front of the entire crowd in the synagogue, showing that the Pharisees were more loyal to their religious system than to God. That was enough to cause them to get on with their mission of destruction (see 12:14).
(from The Life Application Commentary Series copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 by the Livingstone Corporation. Produced with permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.)
How did the Pharisees respond? In a couple of ways.
- They were furious with Christ (Luke 6:11). They had been publicly humiliated, He had arguments that were too good and had shown how shaky their entire tradition was (this wasn’t the first time He had done this with His arguments).
- They began to plot His death (Matt 12:14). You reject our traditions, you need to die.
- They entered into an alliance with the Herodians (their enemies) and looked for their support in attempts to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6). They were determined to carry out their plan for His death.
This controversy marked an important development – the opposition of the Pharisees was no longer veiled, it was now open.
And us? How do we respond when Jesus exposes our issues, faults, problems? Do we want to choke Him? Or do we fall down – broken and contrite – looking for forgiveness? How should we respond and what can we do to get to that point?
