Everything in life seems to have rules. There are rules for the home, rules for school, rules for work, rules for how to use the computer, rules for your bank or credit card use, rules for games we play, and even rules for what you can carry in your pocket when entering a hospital emergency room! Sometimes, rules are for our benefit, and sometimes, there are rules that are just silly. I believe there are some rules made by man that I call, “just because rules.” These are rules that someone made just because they could. This reminds me of the Pharisees in the Bible. They lived their lives making and following the rules.
The Pharisees were a group of zealous Jews who lived in the time Jesus walked this earth. Their idea of pleasing God was to keep all the rules. While God had given them the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, there were also many more He gave them. There was a total of 613! Most of these laws had to do with how to approach God and how to treat each other. Those given by God all had a distinct purpose for that time. The problem with the Jewish leaders was adding to what God had already said. They had a meticulous long list that many still keep. The original intent was to help clarify the laws they already had, but instead, it added great burdens to those who were seeking to please God. This list continues to grow to this day. There are thousands of new commandments beyond the original 613 given by God. For example, in the Mosaic Law, one of the commandments is to keep the Sabbath holy, which means that Jews were not supposed to work on Saturdays. But to clarify this, the Jewish scholars created thirty-nine separate categories of what “work” means, and within those thirty-nine categories there are many sub-categories. So, to follow the rule of not working on the Sabbath, there are literally thousands of sub-rules to follow, including how many steps you can take, and how many letters you can write on the Sabbath.
In the passage for today, Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath. This was where any good Jew would be on their day of worship. Jesus sees a man there with a hand that was withered. He could not use it at all. A withered hand was a hand with no muscle tone. It would slowly deteriorate to the point of being totally useless.
Mark 3:1 “And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.”
The Jews had heard of Jesus’ compassion and His healing powers. They were so jealous of the attention he was getting that they sought to find something wrong with His actions everywhere he went. Their desire was to find anything that would be a valid accusation against Him, concerning their law. They had no intent on finding out the truth about Jesus. He did not fit their manmade profile of the Messiah, therefore they rejected Him. Their goal was to find an accusation that would remove Him from their lives forever.
Mark 3:2 “And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.”
Of course, Jesus knew what they were thinking and what was in their hearts. He proceeds to tell the man to stand up. He then turns to those in the Synagogue and asks the question, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.” They held their peace, but as soon as they left the synagogue, they gathered their information against Him and sought to destroy Him.
Mark 3:6 “And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.”
When Jesus asked the man to stretch forth his hand it brought a new element into the situation. This man showed faith in Jesus by extending his hand. This would also have infuriated the Jews. However, Jesus knew their hearts, and verse 5 tells us he was angry, but His anger did not bring about vengeance, but grief. He was sorrowful because these were God’s chosen people, the ones God had revealed himself to in times past. They had taken God’s commands and twisted them to the point it was no longer about God, but about them. Their hearts had grown hard and cold. They no longer had a desire for God but for religion. Their pride was in control, not God.
Mark 3:3-5 “And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”
If we are not careful, we will fall into the trap of the Pharisees today. We go to church, say a prayer at meals and at bedtime, read a little devotion, and feel we have checked off all the boxes. We approach our service as keeping the rules. We feel justified in our “religion.”
Where is our compassion and our desire to lead others to Christ? What is our guiding thought throughout the day?
Are we going through the motions without the power of the Holy Spirit illuminating our thoughts and actions? We need to make sure that what we are doing is done with Christ first and others in mind second. Jesus gave us two great commandments to live by. It boils down to God first and others second.
Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
