Thoughts for the Day

The Man with a Withered Hand

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

As we have seen Mark shows Jesus healing many people from the first chapter of his Gospel, and by Chapter 2 we see the Pharisees, Scribes and even those who supported Herod, beginning to conspire against him. Today's reading is no different.

I remember as a child aged six years old suddenly becoming aware of another child with a disability. We lived on an army camp in Germany, and I noticed when playing with her that she had a withered arm (caused by polio), and although she managed well there were some things she couldn't do when we played on the swings or roundabout. The man with the withered arm would have found it even more difficult in an agricultural society and it must have affected his opportunity to work, not least because his neighbours would have assumed his deformity was caused because he had sinned.

Jesus has compassion for the man and heals him, even though it's the Sabbath. What saddens Jesus is his opponent's hardness of heart who put the rule book before their love of others. Jesus, the Messiah, always puts his love of God and love of others first before any other rule, even as we have seen before the Law of Moses. If we take this attitude into our world we cannot go far wrong.

Heavenly Father
You know the secrets of our hearts,
You know the times we look at others
with less than charity;
and You know the times we
use the rule book rather than love
to make decisions about others.
Forgive us, and help us to look at others
from Your perspective, with love.
Amen.