Again he entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” 4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. 5 Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.
Jesus was under scrutiny by the Pharisees on the Sabbath and performed a miracle to show his power in deed and word. Again, the issue was about the observance of the Sabbath rest. The Pharisees were becoming more hostile as Jesus continued to heal and show mercy on the Sabbath. Based on their rigid observance of the Law, they considered Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath to be work and therefore a violation of the Law punishable by death (Ex. 31:15).
Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue at Capernaum on the Sabbath and the Pharisees were watching to see if he would heal anyone so they could accuse him of violating the Law. The Pharisees allowed the healing of someone on the Sabbath only if the person’s life was in danger. Jesus widened the principle of saving a life rather than letting someone die on the sabbath to encompass doing good rather than evil on the Sabbath (v. 4). Jesus had previously implied that he had authority over the Sabbath and therefore equated himself with God (Mk. 2:28).
The Pharisees did not respond to Jesus’ question (v. 4) and Jesus expressed righteous anger at the hardness of their hearts. He then healed the man in their presence (v. 5). The Herodians were supporters of Herod Antipas, the Roman Governor of Galilee, and were usually enemies of the Pharisees. It was their hatred of Jesus that united them in a common quest to stop the work of Jesus. In their minds, Jesus was guilty of blasphemy which was punishable by death (Lev. 24:13). This was the beginning of the plan to kill Jesus. Jesus was feared by the evil spirits, but hated by the Jewish religious leaders,
Almighty God, we ask you to pour out your mercy upon us and pardon what we hold in our conscience in fear of your judgment. Grant us the grace to open our hearts to your will and the strength to live it. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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