Mark 3 has this story about Yeshua at the synagogue.
And Yeshua entered into the synagogue again, and there was a person there who had a withered hand. And they watched him closely to see if he’d cure him on the Sabbath — so they could accuse him. And he said to the person who had the withered hand, “Stand up in the middle.” And he said to them, “Is it permitted on the Sabbaths to do good or to do evil? To save a life or to kill?” But they were silent. And looking around at them with wrath, and saddened by the hardness of their heart, he said to the person, “Stretch out your- hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored, as sound as the other. And straightaway the Pharisees went out and consulted together about him with the Herodians, that he should be destroyed.
The Pharisees were the religious elite. The experts in what the scriptures said. They knew the 10 commandments better than anyone, and that “no work should be done on the Sabbath”.
They were 100% convinced that those scriptures banned doing anything on the Sabbath.
Well, except walking to synagogue if it’s close to home. And eating of course. Presumably going to the bathroom was OK.
Oh, and rescuing someone, or even an animal, that’s stuck in a pit was OK.
But miraculously healing a man who had a hand which was useless to him? No way!
Only a totally evil deceiver deserving of death would do that.
Are you kidding me? They couldn’t have healed the guy themselves even to save their own life. Then someone stands up among them and heals him just by telling him to hold his hand out. And assumption #1 is this healer is evil because he just did this on a Sabbath. When we know that nobody is allowed to do any work.
How about “Wow! Did you see that! He just healed that guy’s hand! Who is this person? Is this the Messiah?”
And on top of that, what work did Yeshua do? The Law was about not doing physical work right? And all Yeshua did was tell the guy to stretch out his hand. There was zero physical work involved here.
The Pharisees were the ones who were evil. Arrogantly thinking themselves so much more righteous and important than all those around them. That arrogance had totally blinded them to the truth. It had totally blinded them to realising that the very Messiah they had been expecting, was standing in front of them!
When I was a very young Christian I was discipled by a man called Mr Woodward. Most of my group were overseas Asian students. We all lovingly called him “Mr Woody”.
Whenever he taught a passage of scripture he always asked the same question. “So what?”
Not just “What is the truth of this passage?”, but “What is God trying to show you from this passage today? What did you just see that you never saw before?” “How does this passage of scripture change your life from now on?”
We just read this passage about Yeshua, and the pharisees, and the Sabbath, and healing, and wanting someone dead.
So what? How does that affect you? What is God teaching you here?
Which one are you?
Are you sure?
What can you learn from the Pharisees?
What can you learn from the man with the shrivelled hand?
From Yeshua?
What truth are you so convinced is true that you would hate someone for opposing it?
How is that blinding you?
Are you willing to pray for Yahweh to show you what it is?
What simple thing has Yeshua asked you to do, but you’re keeping your hands in your pockets?
What blessing is that robbing you of?
Who are you angry with for their hardness, or their lack of compassion?
How differently would Yeshua deal with those people than you do?
How blind are you?
How blind am I?