Looking for a Reason

The enemies of Jesus had evolved from surprise to curiosity to skepticism to intent to harm. They are now looking for a reason to take him out.

Jesus sets up this event so that his enemies will be forced to confront and hopefully acknowledge that they have lost interest in the truth and are only defending their territory.

The Pharisees and the Herodians are not natural allies. The Pharisees are religious fundamentalists. They are seeking to purify Judaism of all its foreign elements and to return to a strict adherence to the law of Moses. They will not play politics with their convictions.

The Herodians are compromisers. They have decided to join with King Herod in order to advance themselves and maybe their countrymen. They think this is the most politically expedient thing to do. They will not let spiritual concerns override their political concerns.

This man has a shriveled hand. It is obvious to all those who look at him that his hand is deformed. It may be twisted and misshapen. It has withered like a leaf upon his arm. 

Jesus calls the man to stand up in front of everyone. He becomes the center of attention in the synagogue. He is in better view of the crowd than he ever intended to be. Always he had stayed in the shadows, his withered hand a symbol of his sin-sick soul. Always he felt like a second-class member of the people of God, suffering under God’s judgment. 

Check Your Skepticism For Ill-Will:

"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." - Mark 3:2

His enemies know Jesus will be drawn to the need. So they watch him.

• They are right. Jesus cannot keep from helping this man. He immediately sees him and calls him to the middle.

• We think our need makes us ugly and turns Jesus away from us. But our neediness actually draws Jesus to us. He is the physician who came to help the sick. He is the healer who came, not for the righteous, but for the sinners.

• Jesus is drawn now, in this very room, to the neediest among us. His compassion draws him to the sick, the hurting, the addicted, the wounded, and the weary.

• Is it you? Are you the one today whom Jesus will call to the middle so that he can heal you?

His enemies were truly wishing that Jesus would fall and fail. They wanted him out of their way.

• For the Pharisees, Jesus represents a countering spiritual approach. Jesus is emphasizing the love of God rather than the law. He is emphasizing forgiveness rather than condemnation. He is emphasizing grace and truth above the fast and the tithe. All of this undercuts what the Pharisees are doing in focusing on purity through the law.

• For the Herodians, Jesus is dangerous, de-stabilizing a delicate political balance. They have abandoned their deepest principles for the security of the government.

• The Pharisees and Herodians are turning toward violence against Jesus. They think he is a pretender. Surely God would be pleased if he were murdered.

Are you wishing for the failure or death of those who disagree with you? Do you watch the news and see people in your community who have a different spiritual perspective and wish they would disappear or die? If so, you are behaving like enemies of Jesus. Your skepticism about their spiritual claims has turned into a hatred for the persons themselves.

Wishing ill for a neighbor, and especially working toward that end, is true hatred.

• These Pharisees and Herodians hate Jesus.  They are breaking the Great Commandment—love your neighbor.

• When we give way to hate, even for religious reasons, we are breaking the Great Commandment as well. We have stepped out of the clear will of God and allowed our spiritual differences to become antagonism.

Check Your Skepticism for  Stubbornness:

"He looked at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts." -  Mark 3:5

Jesus becomes angry here. This is not a common occurrence although it does happen elsewhere, most notably on Palm Sunday when Jesus cleanses the Temple. 

• The anger of Jesus arises because the Pharisees and Herodians do not care about the crippled man before them. They have lost sight of a person made in the image of God, whom God loves, so that they might protect their own turf.

• Jesus looked at them and communicated this anger. They enemies of Jesus realize that he is passionately opposed to their understanding of the will of God and their methods.

Something had happened to these religious leaders who  developed a disregard for the health and well-being of others. 

• They had stubborn hearts. The word is translated “hardness” in KJV. It may refer to a callous that develops as one the fingertips of a guitar player. It covers the finger and makes it less sensitive.

• The “heart” is the center of both emotion and reason. In the process of hardening they not only lost their sensitivity, as with the calloused finger, but they also lost the truth and information that a sensitive finger can provide.

• They were determined to resist Jesus no matter what information or feeling they received in the synagogue.

So let me ask: Could you change your opinion of Jesus? 

Check Your Skepticism for Blindness:

"'Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?'" - Mark 3:4

Jesus has two questions for the hard of heart.

• To do good or to do evil? That answer is simple. It is always wrong to do evil, so the answer is “do good.”

• To save life or to kill? Killing is against the Ten Commands, so the answer is “to save life.” 

• With these two questions he is calling these stubborn people to reconsider the intellectual and spiritual place where they fallen. 

Jesus would ask you the same two questions.

• What is lawful on this day of worship: to do good? What good could God do in your life? What good could you do in this worship hour?

• Could Jesus save a life today, maybe your own? Would that be okay for him to do on this day of worship? 

Jesus asked the man, “Stretch out your hand.”

• It’s the one thing he cannot do. It points to his disability and his impossibility.

• The man must have drawn his will and strength from Jesus himself. He did then the one thing he could not do. He stretched out his hand and was restored.

• Jesus is identifying the impossibility in your life. He has his eyes on the one thing that holds you, that binds you. As always, he is saying to you, “Stretch out your hand.” It is his challenge to you. In him and through him, you can do this. He is going to do good to you. He is going to save your life. If you will stretch out your hand, giving to him the impossibility that has ensnared you and held you down too long.

The enemies of Jesus had no doubt that he could heal. But that information didn’t matter. They were not sick, they thought, so they didn’t need his healing. Had they understood their own need, they would have been healed that day.

Are you in the same place? 

Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God: “'The time has come,' he said. 'The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!'" - Mark 1:15

This miracle—and all the miracles—are signs of the coming of God’s kingdom. They are calls from God to believe that he is present and active in the world—that he loves us and that he wants us to come to him.