Where Do We Stand?

January 18

“(9) Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. (10) And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—that they might accuse Him. (11) Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? (12) Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (13) Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. (14) Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him,” Matthew 12:9-14.

“(1) And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. (2) So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. (3) And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward." (4) 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. (5) 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,” Mark 3:1-5.



These parallel Biblical passages reflect a distinctive differentiation between ‘religious folk’ and Jesus, and they illustrate to us the importance of aligning ourselves with the Lord rather than allowing ourselves to be pigeon-holed into the first group.

Both tell the story of Christ’s encounter with a man who had a withered hand. The self-appointed ‘religious police’ were there as well. We might speculate that their presence was calculated to enable them to ‘corner’ Jesus when He approached the beggar in the synagogue on the Sabbath Day.

Their question to Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” was a challenge to the very nature of His ministry among them. They knew He “never turned any away,” John 6:37, but it was His practice to heal all who came to Him, so the very essence of their question was, ARE YOU GOING TO HEAL THIS MAN OF HIS DISORDER OR ARE YOU GOING TO OBEY THE LAW REGARDING REFRAINING FROM WORK ON THE SABBATH?’

Of course, they wanted Him to break the Sabbath law so they would have one more thing to hold against Him. They did not understand that the Sabbath was created by God for the good of man; it was not ordained simply as God’s legislative privilege. In Mark 2:27, 28, Jesus states very clearly, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

This evidences how far from the reality of God’s truth and how distant from the intent of God’s heart these religious leaders were. They were not governed in the least by compassion for the man who would be delivered by the touch of the Lord upon Him, nor were they motivated by reverence for the Lord of the Sabbath who set the day aside as a day of worship and rest.

They couldn’t even stand in awe of the One who did glorious things before their eyes that only God could do. No. They were intent upon destroying the Holy One who came to dwell among them so their stranglehold over the people and the ritual of the Temple that they controlled would not be minimized by the interjection of God’s light into their darkness.

What about us? Where do we align ourselves? Do we stand on religious legalism that condemns the sinner and allows no place for him among the congregation? Or do we open our arms and our hearts to receive the lost and introduce them to the way of salvation?

It is only as we allow ourselves to be the reflection of Jesus and His love that we destroy the human proclivity within us to stand on the legalistic platform from which we endeavor to control those around us.