CHAPTER 3
A MAN WITH A SHRIVELED HAND
1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Mark 3:1-6
The Pharisees’ dispute with Jesus over His attitude to the Sabbath was turning into a running battle. It was almost as though Jesus was baiting them by purposely healing people on the Sabbath. The rift between their definitions of righteousness and His was becoming more clearly defined and was widening into a chasm.
The Pharisees’ “righteousness” was defined by what they did not do. By contrast, Jesus was showing them both God’s heart and theirs by using the Sabbath as an opportunity to help people who needed help. His attitude was: “What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”
God’s vision is always filled with compassion for people who need help. The greater violation of His law is not doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong. A lot of the time, people engage in sin in order to manage their emotional pain. Jesus had more to say to the Pharisees who engaged in religious rituals to cover up their failure to be merciful than to people who engaged in sinful behaviour to cover up their pain. He redefined sin by modelling mercy. To Him, sin was not doing good rather than doing evil. The most wicked behaviour was to ignore someone in need rather than to commit adultery.
This speaks loudly to us because our most natural behaviour is to look inward and keep taking care of our own needs and our own “reputation”. This is what the Hebrew people called the yetzer harah – the evil eye. The eye of light keeps looking at God and sees other people’s needs. God’s greatest measure is: what do I do when I see another’s need and I have the power to meet it? That is the righteousness which flows out of the righteousness imputed to me by faith. They are two inseparable sides of the same coin.