People19

Mk 3:1,2 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.

There are times when ‘religion' is helpless and even positively a hindrance to ‘life'. When we come to the story of the man with a shrivelled hand, there is one thing that particularly stands out and brings great significance to it: the fact of its location. This happened in a synagogue and what makes it worse, it was on the Sabbath. So here is a man with a particular need and ‘religion' seems completely oblivious of his need because ‘religion' is utterly powerless to do anything about it. Now when I speak of ‘religion' I mean a life of ritual, a life that has no life. Week in, week out, this man could have come into this gathering and remained unchanged. They could do nothing for the fact that he had this shrivelled hand.

We don't know why it was like it, what caused it, or how long he had been like it, but the truth was that he was stuck with it. We have many people today who are ‘disabled'. The politically correct brigade may try and call them something else to soften their state, but they know that in some way, some part of their body has been disabled and is not working properly – and they are stuck with it. Oh that Jesus would come in power as he did here! Do we ask him to, I wonder, or have we just accepted their state, like the people in this synagogue had done?

But then Jesus arrives. It is the Sabbath and so, as was his custom as a good Jew, he went to the synagogue, and when he arrives in this particular one, there are three groups of people there. First of all, of course, there is the man with a need that no one cares about. Then there are the bulk of ordinary people who are just there and have no strong feelings one way or another. The third group are those who are truly ‘religious' and are there to protect the status quo and make sure nothing changes. Now for them, it is bad news that Jesus arrives, for he has a reputation, and part of that is that he is good at healing people, and part of it is that he seems somewhat unorthodox and doesn't mind upsetting the establishment.

Thus there are some there who, the moment he comes in, are on the alert to criticise him. In fact Luke tells us who they were: “The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.” (Lk 6:7) These were the self-styled guardians of the Law. They had taken the Law and broken it down and added to it as they sought to apply it. They ‘knew' that it was wrong to work on the Sabbath (Ex 20:8-10 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work.”) However, the tricky bit was deciding what constituted ‘work' and so they had categorized whole lists of things that they considered work, so many things in fact, that it was virtually impossible to do anything on the Sabbath. Thus they thought they were honouring God. ‘Religion' does this! It thinks it honours God when it worries all about what is right or wrong and manages to completely miss the point.

Matthew tells us that it was these men (possibly seeing Jesus eying up the ‘congregation' to see who he could bless?) who took the initiative: “Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Mt 12:9) but Jesus understood the motivation for their question: “ But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.” (Lk 6:8) Now that is interesting! Jesus gets the man to stand up at the front. He is going to make a point – and the man complies. We might think, how awful of Jesus to put this man in an embarrassing situation, but that is just our ‘religion' showing again, for Jesus knows the outcome and he knows that the man will be so overcome by joy that he won't worry about what people might of thought about him being put on display.

But, as we said, Jesus wants to make a point, so he turns to those who want to criticise him and who apparently know the Law and asks them a question: “ He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Mt 12:11,12) OK, he says, you know you would help one of your animals in need, so shouldn't we much more help a person? Both Mark and Luke just then indicate that Jesus healed him, but Matthew, remembering clearly what happened expresses, it seems, his total surprise as he writes, “Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.” (Mt 12:13) We might say his hand was made ‘just as good as new' but Matthew, having been there remembers that after Jesus healed him you couldn't tell one hand form the other. A nice touch!

So, we aren't told much about this man but we are about ‘religion' and therein comes the challenge. I always remember the story told of something that happened in an early house church last century. The new group was worshipping in the downstairs of the leader's house when an ambulance had to be called to attend to an elderly person upstairs. The ambulance men carried the person out on a stretcher through the worshipping company who continued as if nothing was happening. How unreal is ‘religion'! We have to perform and heaven help anyone who suddenly has a real need. The ‘service' must come before the person. That is not ‘life' and that is what this story points out to us. Have you felt uneasy or even annoyed with my account? You probably have a problem because you are 'religious'. Jesus came to bring life not legalism, reality not ritual. Let's get free so we can be free, and Jesus can be free to be himself in our midst today! Then we might see some of the same things happening as we've just read.