Jesus Heals a Crippled Hand

God's day of rest. God made the world in six days, and “on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done” (Genesis 2:2). Then He gave Israel a weekly day of rest: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). A gift, not a burden. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God gave the day to help His people, not to make life hard. What the disciples did. They “plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands” (6:1). God's law allowed a hungry traveler to pick grain by hand from a neighbor's field (Deuteronomy 23:25). The extra rules. The Pharisees were a group of very strict religious leaders. Over the years they had added many rules of their own. To them, picking grain was harvesting and rubbing it was threshing, so it counted as work. The complaint. “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” (6:2). They cared more about their own rules than about hungry people. What we learn. God's commands are good gifts from a kind Father. When people add their own rules to God's Word, they can miss God's kindness. Ask God to help you love His Word and the people around you.

Shabbat (Exodus 20:8-11). The Hebrew word shabbat (say: shah-BAHT) means to stop or to rest. The command looks back to creation: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth… and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:11). A lesson in trust (Exodus 16). Before the Ten Commandments, God taught Israel the Sabbath with manna. He gave a double portion on the sixth day, and “the people rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:30). Resting meant trusting God to provide. Allowed by the law. Deuteronomy 23:25 let a person pluck grain by hand in a neighbor's field, as long as he did not use a sickle. The disciples broke no command of God. A fence around the law. Jewish teachers had built a long list of work that was forbidden on the Sabbath, later written down as thirty-nine kinds of work. Reaping and threshing were on the list, so plucking and rubbing grain counted as breaking the Sabbath. The rules were meant to protect God's law, but they buried God's purpose under human tradition. The heart of the matter. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Every command serves love for God and neighbor (Luke 10:27). Adding rules can look holy while leaving people hungry. Who is in the wrong? The Pharisees accused the disciples (6:2), but the disciples had done nothing God forbade. It is possible to be very religious and still misjudge what God wants. For you. Ask yourself whether you treat God's Word as a list of rules for scoring points, or as the voice of a Father who loves you. The first makes people proud and harsh. The second makes them grateful and kind.

The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. God rested on the seventh day after He made the world. Then He gave His people a day to rest too. It was a gift, not a punishment. On that day they stopped working and remembered God. But the Pharisees had added many extra rules. They said picking grain was the same as harvesting a field. God's law did not say that. God's law let a hungry person pick grain by hand. The Pharisees made God's gift feel heavy and hard. Jesus came to show what God is really like. God is kind, and He cares when we are hungry. His commands are good gifts for us.

God gave His people a day to rest. It was called the Sabbath. Rest is a gift from God. God takes care of us.

Have you not read? Jesus answered from Scripture: “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry” (6:3). The Pharisees knew the Bible well, but they had missed its heart. The showbread. Showbread was twelve loaves set out on a holy table in God's house. Each Sabbath the priests put out fresh loaves, and only the priests could eat the old ones. David's need. David was running from King Saul. When he and his men were hungry, the priest gave them the holy bread (1 Samuel 21:1-6). God did not punish them. People matter to God. Meeting a real need did not break God's law. God cares about people more than about keeping rules for their own sake. Lord of the Sabbath. God made the Sabbath and called it His own. When Jesus said He is its Lord, He was saying that He has God's authority. Only God could be Lord of God's day. Son of Man. This was the name Jesus used most often for Himself. It comes from Daniel 7:13-14, where “One like the Son of Man” is given a kingdom that will never end. What we learn. Jesus is not just a good teacher. He is the Lord, and He has the right to tell us what God's commands mean. So listen to Him and do what He says.

1 Samuel 21:1-6. At Nob, David asked Ahimelech the priest for bread. The only bread there was the holy bread, and the priest gave it to David's hungry men. Scripture does not condemn David for it, and neither did Jesus. The showbread (Leviticus 24:5-9). Twelve loaves were set before the Lord every Sabbath, and afterward they became food for Aaron and his sons in a holy place. If a priest could give holy bread to hungry men, then human need and mercy clearly matter to God. Mercy over ritual. In Matthew's account of this same day, Jesus reminds them of Hosea 6:6, where God says He desires mercy and not sacrifice (Matthew 12:7). The Pharisees had condemned men who were innocent. Kyrios (6:5). The Greek word kyrios (say: KOO-ree-os) means Lord, master, the one with the final say. In the Greek Old Testament it is the word used for God's own name. Jesus says He is Lord of the day God Himself blessed and made holy (Genesis 2:3). Greater than the temple. In the same conversation Jesus said that One greater than the temple was standing there (Matthew 12:6). The bread, the priests and the Sabbath all served God, and God the Son was standing in front of them. The Son of Man. Daniel saw “One like the Son of Man” receive “dominion and glory and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus takes that title, and that authority, for Himself. For you. If Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, He is Lord of your time too. Give Him your weeks, your rest and your work, and let His word decide what is right, not the opinions of the crowd.

Jesus answered the Pharisees with the Bible. He reminded them about David. David and his men were running from King Saul. They were very hungry. The priest gave them the holy bread from God's house. God did not punish David for eating it. God cares about people's needs. He cares about that more than a rule for its own sake. Then Jesus said He is Lord of the Sabbath. That means Jesus is in charge of God's special day. God made the Sabbath, so only God could say that. Jesus was telling them who He really is. He is God the Son. We can trust Him and follow Him.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Lord means the One in charge. Jesus made the day of rest. He is God's own Son!

A man in need. In the synagogue “a man was there whose right hand was withered” (6:6). Withered means shrunk and dried up, like a plant with no water. With a useless right hand, he could hardly work. Watchers with hard hearts. “So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him” (6:7). They were at the synagogue to catch Jesus, not to worship God. Jesus knows. “But He knew their thoughts” (6:8). Nothing is hidden from Jesus. “The Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). In the middle. Jesus told the man, “Arise and stand here” (6:8). He did not heal in secret. He let everyone see what God's love looks like. The question. “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” (6:9). Refusing to help when you can help is not the same as doing good. It is choosing not to do good. What we learn. Jesus sees your heart and loves you anyway. He also sees the people others ignore, and He wants us to see them too.

A withered hand (6:6). Withered means dried up and shriveled, like a plant that has had no water. It was the man's right hand, the hand most people work with, so he could hardly earn a living. Watched Him closely (6:7). The scribes and Pharisees “watched Him closely,” the way spies watch from the side. They had already decided Jesus was guilty and only wanted evidence. Their rule. Many religious teachers said that a person could be treated on the Sabbath only if his life was in danger. A withered hand could wait until tomorrow, so healing it would count as work. He knew their thoughts (6:8). Jesus read hearts as only God can. “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus could, and His word is still “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Arise and stand here. Jesus brought the man into the middle of the room. He chose to do good openly, knowing it would cost Him. Good or evil (6:9). Jesus' question leaves no middle ground. On God's day, refusing to do the good in front of you is a way of doing harm. In Matthew 12:11-12 Jesus points out that they would lift a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath, and a man is worth far more than a sheep. For you. When you see someone who is hurting or left out, you are facing Jesus' question. Doing nothing is still a choice, so ask Him for a heart that chooses good.

The man's right hand was crippled. It was probably hard for him to work. The Pharisees saw him, but they did not care about him. They only wanted to trap Jesus. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. Nobody had to tell Him. Jesus knows every thought we think. Jesus did not heal the man in secret. He called him to stand up in front of everyone. Jesus cared about a man that others ignored. Then Jesus asked them a big question. Doing good is always right on God's day. Not helping someone we could help is wrong.

Some men watched Jesus with hard hearts. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. Jesus knows our hearts too. He loves us so much.

Jesus looked around. “And when He had looked around at them all” (6:10). Mark tells us Jesus was angry and also deeply sad, because their hearts were so hard (Mark 3:5). An impossible command. “Stretch out your hand” (6:10). The man could not do it on his own. But when Jesus gives a command, He also gives the power to obey. Faith that obeys. “And he did so” (6:10). The man did not argue or wait. He trusted Jesus and moved. Made whole. “His hand was restored as whole as the other” (6:10). Restored means made the way it was meant to be. Jesus did not just make it a little better. Filled with rage. “But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus” (6:11). They saw a miracle and still would not believe. Good on God's day. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. His enemies spent the Sabbath planning harm. That answered Jesus' question in verse 9. What we learn. Jesus has power to make broken things whole. He still hears our prayers today. The right answer to His word is to trust Him and obey.

He looked around at them all (6:10). Jesus waited for an answer, and nobody spoke. Mark 3:5 adds that He looked at them with anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts. His anger was holy, and it was full of sorrow for them. Stretch out your hand. The command asked the man to do the one thing he could not do. Faith is not pretending. It is acting on Jesus' word because Jesus said it. Apokathistēmi (6:10). “Restored” translates apokathistēmi (say: ah-poh-kah-THIS-tay-mee), to put something back the way it was made. Peter uses a related word for “the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). One healed hand was a small preview of that day. Anoia (6:11). “Filled with rage” is literally filled with anoia (say: AH-noy-ah), a senseless fury, a mind gone out of control. They had seen the power of God and answered with blind anger. The plot begins. Mark 3:6 says the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how to destroy Him. They would not let Jesus save a life on the Sabbath, yet they were willing to plan to take one. The road to the cross. Their plotting would end at Calvary. There the Lord of the Sabbath laid down His life for His enemies, and He rose “very early in the morning, on the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2). For you. When Jesus' word asks for something you cannot do in your own strength, trust Him and step out. His commands come with His power.

Jesus looked around at all of them. Then He told the man to stretch out his hand. The man had not been able to do that before. But the man trusted Jesus and obeyed. His hand was healed right away! It was strong, just like his other hand. Only God has power like that. But the Pharisees were not happy. They were filled with anger. They began to plan how to hurt Jesus. Jesus did good, but they wanted to do evil. Later, Jesus gave His life on the cross for people like them. He gave His life for us too.

Jesus said, “Stretch out your hand.” The man obeyed. His hand was healed! Jesus has power to make it new.