Mark 3:4–5: “Then He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

January 29th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Jesus asked 2 things to expose the hearts of the Pharisees. The first question was if you have the opportunity to do good and refuse, is that lawful? The second was if you could save a life and instead chose to harm, is that lawful? The Savior was trying to reach these religious men, who had a great deal of information about God but little if any personal relationship with Him. To them, performing their religious rituals was more important than understanding the heart of God.

It says they were silenced by these penetrating questions. Jesus had trapped them in their own legalism, not to win a debate but to win their souls. This was their dilemma, “Here is an opportunity to do good but it’s the Sabbath, and we are so convinced that God is intent upon us resting that we would rather do harm, by refusing to help, than to break our rest.” But that was a little too callused even for these religious purist to admit out loud, and so they were silent. Instead of recognizing what Jesus had called them out on and showing compassion for the man, they sat there, in a church service, and plotted how to entrap Jesus and kill him. They would rather plan His death than see the miracle of this man’s withered hand being healed.

When Jesus said, “stretch out your hand,” it wasn’t a suggestion but a command. We have seen before that God’s commands are accompanied by His enabling power. It is interesting that Jesus used only His word to bring the healing this time. It would be very difficult to bring a charge against Jesus of having labored on the Sabbath when He didn’t even touch the man. Were the Pharisees grateful that a man was made whole? No. Reducing relationship with God to a legal relationship, as they had, only serves to make a person’s heart cold, hard, and cynical. Religion apart from relationship is stripped of love! It is never God’s way if love isn’t the motive.

“LORD, we need to walk in compassion this day. Please guide us in Your love.”