Mon, 20 February, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
One Sabbath, a man with a withered hand went to the synagogue to worship. There is nothing in the text that tells us the man knew Jesus was going to be there, or that the man came with the hope of being healed. From what we see in the text, all we know is he came expecting to worship as usual, not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen that morning. But something extraordinary did happen.
Jesus saw the man and called him out of the crowd. All of the sudden, the man was the center of attention as everyone turned their eyes upon him to see what Jesus was about to do. When Jesus asked about doing good and saving life, the man’s heart must have stood still. Everyone knows that Jesus can heal people. “Is it possible,” the man must have thought, “that He might heal me? Could it be?”
Then Jesus does the unthinkable. He tells the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand. The one think he could not do is the very thing Jesus tells him to do. What do you suppose went through the man’s mind at that point? Do you think there was a moment of fear and anger as he thought, “I can’t stretch out my hand!” Or was it a moment of excitement and hope as he realized what was going to happen? What we know is that the man responded to Jesus’ command by doing what he was previously unable to do. And as he responded in faith to Jesus’ call, his hand was restored and he was enabled to do what Jesus had commanded.
What do we learn from this?
What a picture of salvation this is. We are all dead in our trespasses and sins. We reject everything about God. We, in our natural state, are at war with God and are in rebellion against Him. But God’s command for us to repent of our sins and turn to Him in faith, trusting only in Jesus Christ for our salvation comes to us. This is foolishness to us, and it is the last thing we would ever do.
But the Holy Spirit works within the lives of the elect, changing and regenerating them so that they can respond to the call. They are enabled to do the very thing they previously couldn’t do, because of the call of God upon their lives, regenerating them and empowering them to respond.
Where is Christ in this passage?
The man responds in faith, trusting Jesus Christ to enable him to stretch out his hand, and in the act of trusting Christ, he finds the ability to do what he was commanded to do. The same is true with us. We are commanded to repent of our sins and come to God, trusting only in Christ for our salvation. And as we respond to His call to faith in Jesus Christ, we find that He enables us to trust in Christ Jesus for our salvation.
