And it came to pass on another sabbath also that he entered into the synagogue and taught; and there was a man there, and his right hand was withered.
Luke sets the scene on a second Sabbath, closely after the dispute in the grainfield. The day of rest was the sign that God had bound Himself to Israel, and commentators point out that it was never meant to stand in the way of His kindness.
We see the Lord on two Sabbath days: He defends the disciples for plucking the ears of grain, and He heals the withered hand in the synagogue in a way that is almost defiant. The Sabbath, or seal of the old covenant, was never given by God — though people abused it — to hinder His goodness toward the needy and the wretched. But the Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath, and grace is free to bless man and glorify God.
Three parties stand in that synagogue. What separates them is need — who has it, who can meet it, and who feels none.
God's perfect Servant — the Lord of glory — is present with power to bless, and with grace in His heart to use that power for the needy. Man is there in all his deep need, but powerless to help himself, for his hand is withered. The religious man is there with no sense of his own need, no grasp of the glory of the Lord, and no concern for the need of others.
The verse tells us which hand it was. That kind of detail is worth noticing.
It is a very remarkable thing to see the particular touches in Scripture when cases are described that came before the Lord. This is an example. Luke, when he speaks of this case, says the man's "right hand" was withered; Mark simply speaks of "a man with a withered hand."
A withered right hand is more than a medical detail. It marks a man who cannot work, and it points to a cause.
But Jesus saw more, and saw differently. He saw a man there doing no work at all, for his right hand had lost its skill. God sometimes sends such an affliction directly, as with the renegade king and the false shepherd of Israel (1 Kings 13:4; Zechariah 11:17). If this was not one of those cases, it was the result of sin all the same, whatever the immediate causes were… Its uselessness in this case showed the cruel effects of sin on mankind.
The picture is wider than one man. One writer sees the whole nation in him.
The man with the withered hand was like Israel, powerless to do anything rightly. What was the value of keeping the Sabbath outwardly when there was no power for God? Surely, if it is right to pull a fallen sheep out of a pit, it is better to heal a fallen man. And that means the fallen people too, if only they had been ready for it.
Rules can be twisted into rope. Watch what the leaders here tried to tie down with them.
Here the Sabbath question came up again. The Pharisees would have pushed their technical objections so far as to forbid an act of mercy on that day… He had power to heal in grace, and He used that power whether they liked it or not. He accepted their challenge. He made the man stand out in the middle and healed him in the most public way possible. The lords of the Philistines tried to tie the hands of Samson with seven fresh bowstrings, but they tried in vain. The lords of Israel were trying to make ropes out of the Sabbath law to tie the gracious hands of Jesus, and they also tried in vain.
The man could not restore himself, and that is the point at which the story reaches the reader.
Many of us suffer from withered hands at this very hour. Sin has so paralysed us that we can do nothing for God. We cannot do any good works, however deeply we may feel the need of them. But there is salvation in what Christ has done. His precious atoning sacrifice is enough for all our need. The one who trusts Him is blessed entirely apart from works of merit of any kind. One result of His blessing is that the once-withered hand now has power to do something for Him in the middle of a burdened and suffering creation.
- Day. The Sabbath was the sign of God's covenant with Israel — never given to block His goodness to people in need.
- Room. One room held three parties. The Lord had power to bless. The man had need he could not meet. The religious men felt no need at all.
- Hand. Luke alone notes which hand it was: the right one, the working hand, robbed of its skill. Sin's mark on man is written in it.
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- Nation. Keeping the Sabbath meant little in people who had no power for God. The man's helpless hand pictured Israel's.
- Cure. Ropes made from the Sabbath law could not tie the hands of Jesus — and the hand He restores gains power to work for Him.
And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching if he would heal on the sabbath, that they might find something of which to accuse him.
A man with a withered hand sits in the synagogue while Jesus teaches. The religious leaders are not listening to the teaching. They are studying the Teacher. Luke tells us why they watched: not to learn, but to build a case.
Luke does not use a neutral word for looking. One writer traces where the term came from and what it signals here:
The word for "observation" (paratērēsis) and its related verb were used by doctors for watching the symptoms of a disease, and so express early investigation. They were also used in astrology, for watching the stars. Luke uses the verb (Luke 6:7, Luke 14:1, Luke 20:20) to show hostile intent.
That is the language of a medical examination. The same watching appears twice more in Luke, always with hostile intent.
The charge they hoped to bring was not that He would harm anyone. It was that He would help someone on the wrong day. Two things stood face to face in that synagogue:
Now the scribes and Pharisees with deadly hatred are watching to see "whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him." That was man on one side. On the other side stood a Stranger who had come down from heaven — a Man too, come to fallen man, with a heart to display perfectly the mind of heaven and of God. But those who prided themselves on their righteousness and wisdom are afraid He will heal men at the cost of their ceremonies, so they try to fasten an accusation on Him.
Their fear was that mercy would cost them their ritual.
Their whole plan depended on one prediction: that He would do good. Commenting on the parallel account in Mark, one writer draws out what that admits:
Of these Pharisees, we read that "they watched Him." They did not watch to learn His ways and the grace of His heart. They watched in the hope that He would do good on the Sabbath by healing a poor needy man who was there, and so give them occasion to charge the Lord with working on the sabbath. What a witness to the perfection of Christ, that His enemies do not expect any evil from Him, but can count on His doing good!
They would rather protect their traditions than see God act in mercy. One writer names the absurdity:
To maintain their traditional teaching they would forbid God to act in mercy. Weak, wretched creatures would, if they could, stop even the Almighty from showing kindness to a creature in need!
The problem starts further back, with what the natural heart loves:
The natural heart loves formality. Religious ordinances appeal powerfully to it... What did the Pharisees of our Lord's day care that the land was full of misery, so long as they kept the sabbath forms exactly? Nothing deceives the heart like religion without a converted heart toward God. Nothing else leads men into such glaring inconsistency. The men who quibbled about our Lord healing on the sabbath day saw no wrong in plotting on that day to murder Him.
Jesus knew what they were thinking. He did not avoid the clash or arrange a quiet, private healing:
The scribes and Pharisees, zealous for their own laws, watched for an occasion to accuse the Lord, especially since the man was there with a withered hand. Knowing their thoughts, He made an issue of this serious matter. He could have avoided a confrontation by having the man meet Him in private for healing. But He had to face the callous religious prejudice of the Pharisees in public.
Another writer explains why caution would have been the wrong response:
Mere prudence would have led a man not to give them the smallest excuse, but grace does not mind giving people handles if they are disposed to take them. Grace is bent on pleasing God, whether people like it or not.
The day itself carried meaning. It marked a relationship, and it belonged to the One who gave it:
The sabbath was the sign of the covenant between Israel and God — rest after finished works... God, who established this ordinance, was above the ordinances He had established, and present in grace... Moreover the power of God present in grace did not allow misery to exist, because it was the day of grace.
- Watched. The verb belongs to a doctor tracking symptoms — close, patient watching. Luke uses it twice more of enemies studying Jesus.
- Expected. Their trap only worked if He healed, so their own plan conceded that He could be counted on to do good.
- Feared. What alarmed them was not evil but mercy — that people might be healed at the cost of their ceremonies.
- Exposed. Religion without a converted heart breeds inconsistency: they objected to a healing on that day, then plotted a murder on it.
- Answered. He did not soften the moment to escape the charge. Grace acted in the open, because the day of grace leaves no misery untouched.
But *he* knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, Get up, and stand in the midst. And having risen up he stood [there].
Religious leaders sit in a synagogue, watching Jesus. They hope He will heal a man, so they can charge Him with breaking the Sabbath. They say nothing out loud. He answers what is in their minds, then does the very thing they are waiting for, in front of everyone.
The scribes and Pharisees never voiced their plan. Luke says the Lord knew it anyway, and commentators point to this as evidence of who He is.
Scripture says He "knew their thoughts" when He healed the man with the withered hand in Luke 6. It says the same when He cast out a demon and the Pharisees credited His power to Beelzebub (Luke 6:8; Matt. 12:25). Not only that, but "He was grieved at the hardness of their hearts." He is the One of whom Job could say, "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted." They could not bear the mercy and grace that could meet their need, because it shut out their religious pretence.
The words from Job are given here in the ESV. The older translation this writer used reads, "no thought can be hidden from You" — which is why he brings Job in at this point.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell this story, and each adds something the others leave out. The note about His knowing their thoughts is Luke's own contribution.
Mark (3) tells how they stayed silent when the Lord questioned them. He also lets us know how the Lord felt at that moment. He looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their hearts. Luke (6) adds to what the others have told us with the statement that the Lord knew their thoughts. Each gives us something not found elsewhere.
Their whole trap rested on an assumption about Jesus. They expected Him to help the man — that is why they came prepared to accuse.
Of these Pharisees, we read that "they watched Him." They did not watch to learn from His ways and the grace of His heart. They watched in the hope that He would do good "on the Sabbath day" by healing a poor needy man who was present. That would give them grounds to charge the Lord with working on the Sabbath. What a witness to the perfection of Christ, that His enemies do not expect any evil from Him, but can count on His doing good!
Jesus had a quieter option available. He chose the one that forced the issue.
The scribes and Pharisees were zealous for their own laws. They watched for a chance to accuse the Lord, above all because the man was there with a withered hand. Knowing their thoughts, He made an issue of this serious matter. He could have avoided a confrontation by healing the man in private. But He had to face the callous religious prejudice of the Pharisees in the open.
"Come and stand here" put the need on display before the healing came. One writer notes that the hand was the right one, and what a right hand stood for.
First of all, He says to the man, "Stand forth." That is a very important word. The great thing is to have this helpless, needy man in plain view of every eye. I have no doubt that was the Saviour's purpose in bringing this man forward, so that every eye should rest on the helplessness. That poor, helpless man had lost the use of the very thing that belongs to man in a special way and marks his power. The right hand is the emblem of power, and Scripture uses it again and again for power, ability, and favour too.
The man does not argue that he cannot. He gets up and stands. One writer draws the same lesson from the next command Jesus gives him.
We may rest assured that God never gives a command without at the same time supplying the power to obey. The command may test the real condition of the heart. But the soul that is willing, by grace, to obey receives power from above to do so. Christ commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it out. The man might have said, "How can I stretch out an arm that hangs dead at my side?" But he raised no question at all. With the command, and from the same source, came the power to obey.
- They watched — even His enemies took it for granted that Jesus would do good. They built their trap on that certainty.
- He knew — they never said their accusation out loud. He answered it anyway, because no thought is hidden from Him.
- He called — He did not heal the man quietly in private. He called him into the middle of the room and met the prejudice there in the open.
- He exposed — the man stood in front of them with a useless right hand. Everyone saw the helplessness before anyone saw the cure.
- He commanded — the word came first, and the strength to obey came with it. The man did not wait to feel able before he moved.
Jesus therefore said to them, I will ask you if it is lawful on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy [it]?
A man with a withered hand is in the synagogue, and religious experts are watching to see what Jesus will do on the Sabbath. He does not dodge the trap — He calls the man out in front of everyone, then puts a question to the watchers.
One writer contrasts caution with grace:
Ordinary caution would have kept a man from giving them the smallest excuse. But grace does not mind giving people something to take hold of, if that is what they want. Grace is set on pleasing God, whether people like it or not. So Jesus says to the man with the withered hand, "Come and stand here." He makes the healing public. He marks the character of the act in the plainest way — He makes it a sign of what grace is, in front of them all.
Their reasoning was simple: healing is work, and the Sabbath forbids work. His question refuses that reasoning.
They had reasoned it out like this: the commandment of God forbade all work on the Sabbath. So Jesus, by healing the withered hand, would be working, and therefore breaking the Sabbath. But the Lord's words put the matter on a different plane altogether. The question was not, as they supposed, one between acting and doing nothing. It was between doing good and doing harm — between saving a life and destroying a life by refusing to save it. God gave His law to restrain evil, not to restrain good. Indeed, to hold back from doing good when the chance is there shows unlikeness to God.
The question sorted the room into two sides.
They were doing evil; it was His to do good. They were seeking to destroy His life; He was willing to save theirs. Is not God always doing good? Does He hold back from doing good on the Sabbath day? Was not the Sabbath itself a witness of how God loved to do good, and a pledge that He will bring His people into His own rest?
Nobody answered Him. The silence itself was the confession.
He had the man stand out in front, then asked them a simple question that went straight to the point. Did the law allow one to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? — to save life or to kill? So far as they were concerned, they would rather see a man die on the Sabbath than see him healed. They would not answer. They knew that an answer either way would incriminate them, unless they gave up their foolish prejudice.
Another writer puts their position bluntly:
To maintain their traditional teaching they would forbid God to act in mercy. If they could, weak and wretched creatures would hold back even the Almighty from doing good to someone in need!
The Sabbath was no random rule. It carried the weight of the whole covenant — and yet the One who gave it stood above it:
The Sabbath was the sign of the covenant between Israel and God — rest after finished works… God, who set up this ordinance, was above the ordinances He had set up. He was present in grace, so man's obligation gave way to the sovereignty of God. And the Son of Man was there with the rights and the power of God. Astonishing fact! Moreover the power of God present in grace did not allow misery to remain, because it was the day of grace.
One writer gives the reason God could not simply rest:
Man may be content to rest in the presence of sin and the misery it brings. God cannot rest where sin and misery exist. His holiness demands that He deal with sin; His love drives Him to work for the relief of the sinner.
One writer sets this man beside the paralysed man of an earlier chapter:
In the case of the paralysed man of chapter 5:18, he was totally helpless, a picture of one lost and in his sins. The man with the withered hand is more a picture of a believer who needs restoring. He has lost the ability for positive works of good… A believer might stop doing evil works and yet be badly weakened as to positive good, which the right hand speaks of. He needs the grace of the Lord Jesus for restoration.
- Good: The choice Jesus set before them was never rest versus work; it was doing good versus doing harm. God gave His law to restrain evil, not to restrain good.
- Evil: The question exposed the room. He was there to save a life; they were already planning to destroy His.
- Silence: Any answer would have condemned them, unless they dropped their tradition. So they said nothing.
- Grace: The Sabbath meant rest after finished work, but God cannot rest while sin and misery remain. His holiness makes Him deal with sin; His love makes Him work for the sufferer.
- Restored: The withered right hand pictures a believer who has stopped doing evil yet cannot do positive good. The same grace restores that hand for use.
And having looked around on them all, he said to him, Stretch out thy hand. And he did [so] and his hand was restored as the other.
It is a Sabbath, in a synagogue. Religious leaders are watching Jesus for a reason to accuse Him. A man is there whose right hand hangs useless. Jesus looks round the whole room, then speaks one short command. The verse holds two things: a searching look at hard hearts, and a word that gives a helpless man the power to obey.
Before the healing, Jesus asks a question no one will answer.
The Lord even challenges them publicly, and says, "I will ask you if it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?" They were doing evil; it was His to do good. They were seeking to destroy His life; He was willing to save theirs. Then, "after looking around at them all he said to him, 'Stretch out your hand.'" That was enough. The man did so, "and his hand was restored." How simple, and yet how truly Divine! ... Is not God always doing good? Does He forbear to do good on the Sabbath day?
Another record of the same moment tells us what was behind that look.
We do read of His looking round in anger. Yet we soon learn that this was not the anger of one who has taken the judge's seat. It was the anger of One who was grieved at heart by the hardness and unbelief of men. It was the sensitivity of the spirit of holiness.
Jesus asks the man to do the one thing he cannot do.
We can be sure that God never gives a command without also giving the power to obey it. The command may test the real state of the heart. But the soul that grace has made willing to obey receives power from above to do it. Christ commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it out. The man could have said, "How can I stretch out an arm that hangs dead by my side?" But he raised no question at all. With the command, and from the same source, came the power to obey.
Notice which of the two comes first.
Scripture is plain that obedience is the way of blessing. We are not to wait for power before we obey a command. We are to obey it, and so find power. The Lord did not restore the hand so the man could stretch it out and show it. He told the man to stretch it out, so that it might be restored.
One writer stops at how the healing is worded.
Read these verses closely, along with the parallel accounts in Matthew 12 and Luke 6. Nowhere do they say that the Lord (or God) made this hand well. Each time it is put like this: "and his hand was restored." Was this restoration a consequence of God's work? Absolutely, for only God can heal in such a miraculous way. Does this mean that it was not a consequence of the man's faith? No, it was also a result of his faith because God uses the faith of people to carry out His will.
Which hand it was carries meaning.
That poor, helpless, impoverished man had lost the use of what belongs to a person in a special way, and so stands for his power. That is why the right hand becomes the emblem of power and ability, and of favour too, and Scripture uses it that way again and again.
One writer applies the man's condition to believers:
The man with the withered hand pictures a believer who needs restoring from a state in which he has lost the ability to do positive good... a believer might stop doing evil works and yet still be badly weakened for the good works that the right hand speaks of. He needs the grace of the Lord Jesus to be restored.
Why heal in public, in a crowded synagogue?
The power of God, present in grace, would not let misery stay, because it was the day of grace. But this meant setting Judaism aside... He took up the rights of supreme goodness, and showed a power that proved His claim to assert them. So He heals the man with the withered hand in a full synagogue.
- Withered. The right hand is the emblem of power and ability — this man had lost the very thing that makes a person able to act.
- Watched. Jesus healed in the open, in a full synagogue. Grace was present, and grace does not leave misery alone.
- Word. He commanded what the man could not do; God never gives a command without giving the power to obey it.
- Order. The hand was not restored so it could be stretched out; it was stretched out so it could be restored. Obedience comes first, power follows.
- Restored. Only God could heal it, yet the man's faith moved the arm — divine work and human trust meet in one motion.
But *they* were filled with madness, and they spoke together among themselves what they should do to Jesus.
A man with a withered hand stretched out his arm at Jesus' word and found it whole again. The men watching answered that kindness not with thanks but with rage, and began to plan what to do with Him.
Before the healing, Jesus asked the watchers whether the Sabbath was for doing good or doing harm. His question showed who was really doing what.
The Lord even challenges them publicly, and says, "I will ask you if it is lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?" They were doing evil; it was His to do good. They were seeking to destroy His life; He was willing to save theirs. And having looked around on them all, He said to him, "Stretch out your hand." It was enough. The man did so, and his hand was restored, like the other one. How simple, and yet how divine!
Some translations call their fury "madness", and the writers quoted here use that word. Their rage had a cause, and it is named below.
And what was the effect upon unbelief? They were filled with madness, and spoke together among themselves what they should do to Jesus. This was because He had shown that God never gives up His right to do good, even on the Sabbath day, in a world ruined by man's sin and Satan's schemes. A superior power has entered and shows the defeat of Satan. But meanwhile Satan fills his instruments, first with his lies, and then with his murderous hatred.
What they forbade Him, they did themselves — on the same day.
How cruel and unreasonable is the religious prejudice of the Pharisees! When grace is shown to a man in such need, they were filled with madness because it was done on their holy day (v.11). They would deny God the right to show compassion on the day when it was most fitting of all. They plotted together as to how to deal with the Lord Jesus, with the intent of killing Him (Mk.3:6). In their cruelty they deny Him the right to save life on the Sabbath. On that same day, they make their evil plans to murder Him!
Nothing in the healing gave them a real grievance. The goodness itself is what stung.
Now, that is the effect of mercy on a wicked man. There is nothing that brings out sin like grace. Nothing stirs up the hatred of the devil, or of the followers and slaves of Satan, more than the mercy and goodness of God, His character and His nature, shown in this world. So the cure took place. This poor man found relief. The withered hand was restored, and the man now had the use of it. Still, nothing will stop the awful malice and hatred of men against Christ, and against His truth and ways of mercy here.
Their objection was religious. A religious system can stay intact while the people it exists for suffer.
What an insight we get here into how hollow and worthless man's sabbath keeping is! Those religious guides would rather let the disciples starve than let anyone disturb their sabbath. They would allow the man to carry his withered hand to the grave, rather than have him healed on their sabbath. Alas, it was indeed their sabbath, and not God's. His rest could never fit with hunger and withered hands... Grace rises, in its magnificence, above all legal barriers, and faith rejoices in its brightness. But the activity of grace and the boldness of faith offend mere religiousness.
Writers note the same spirit surviving long after the synagogue emptied.
The natural heart loves formality... Man in this day, inheriting their spirit, would rather souls go unshepherded and perish than that established customs should be touched. Nothing so deceives the heart as religion without heart-conversion to God; nothing so betrays men into the most glaring inconsistency. The men who quibbled about our Lord healing on the Sabbath day saw no wrong in plotting on that day to murder Him.
Luke sets their meeting beside the Lord's own.
Divine love must act and heal the withered hand, even if wretched man should seek to find an accusation in it. And they were filled with madness and talked together about what they might do to Jesus (v. 11). But in those days Jesus went off to a mountain to pray. He drew near to God, to commune with Him about what He was to do for them (v. 12). His was the activity of grace — of love showing itself in holiness and power in the middle of evil.
Another writer notices that this was no special measure for a crisis.
In the face of their rising hatred Jesus retired into the solitude of communion with God. In the last chapter we saw Him retiring for prayer when crowds thronged Him and success seemed to be His. He does just the same when dark clouds of opposition seem to surround Him. In all circumstances prayer was the resource of the perfect Man.
- Mercy — Jesus restored the hand in full view of the room. The deed was simple, public, and good.
- Madness — Their fury was not reason but rage. They denied Him the right to save life on that day, then spent it planning His death.
- Motive — Goodness itself provoked them. Nothing draws out the hatred in a heart like grace does.
- Mask — They were defending their sabbath, not God's. Religion can guard its forms while a man carries a withered hand to the grave.
- Mountain — They talked about what to do to Him. He went up the mountain and talked with God about what to do for them.