Monday in the 23d Week of Ordinary Time, September 7, 2020

Luke 6:6-11

On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Interestingly, in today’s Gospel reading, St. Luke thought it significant enough that he supplied the detail that the man’s right hand was withered.  Most likely, the man was right handed, and the loss of the use of this hand meant an inability to work.  His lot would have included the resultant poverty but also loneliness because even today, healthy people tend to edge away from the deformed, the handicapped, and those suffering from deadly diseases like cancer.  Yet this man came to the synagogue.  Probably he did not intend to beg, as it was the Sabbath, when most work was forbidden, but to pray, and perhaps to take some solace in human proximity, of not their company.  The Greek adjective translated here as “withered” does not tell us much about the cause of his condition.  The word itself can also mean, “a desert-like dryness”.  St. Mark uses a perfect passive participle to describe the man’s hand, in Mark 3, 1: “whose hand had been withered”.  This tells us his condition arose not from a birth defect but from an illness or accident.

“The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.”  They note the presence of the man with the shriveled hand and think that he will approach Jesus for healing.  Since apparently the synagogue in today’s reading was located in Capernaum, and since Jesus had spent entire days and nights healing people from all around the city, this man came some distance to see Jesus.  It is possible that the Pharisees, seeing him enter the synagogue, brought him to a seat where they knew Jesus, standing up front, would have to see him if the man’s own courage failed him.  At any rate, the Lord moved before anyone else could: Jesus “said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come up and stand before us.’ ”  Now, this was quite out of order for a synagogue assembly.  The Jews came together here on the Sabbath to study the Scriptures and to pray.  Discussions might ensue, but no actions outside of that.  When the man stood up and came to Jesus, the Lord did not heal him immediately.  Instead, he spoke to the crowd: “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  Now, what did Jesus mean by this?  He seems to open up the possibility of destroying the man with the withered hand.  But while the Lord is speaking aloud so that all might hear, his intended audience is the group of Pharisees and scribes, who are already plotting to destroy him.  He challenges them to see the evil that they were committing.  In doing so, he seeks to “save” their lives, that is, from hell.  In considering this verse, it helps to know that the verb here translated as “to save” also means “to heal”, which we can also understand as “to forgive”.  

The minds of the Pharisees are so darkened with hate that they do not see what Jesus is trying to tell them.  Indeed, they seem hardened against the miracles Jesus has performed, and what that signifies.  They do not challenge the reality of the miracles.  They simply look past them.  All they can see is a man who pays them no deference and does not follow their interpretation of the law.  After the Lord spoke to them, he let the words sink in.  He “looked around”, looking into the eyes of men who discounted the healing of the lame, the sick, the blind as signs that God had truly come among them.  

And then he turned to the man with the withered hand and told him to hold out the afflicted appendage, and all could see that it was whole.  Flesh and tendons had suddenly appeared.  The man could wiggle his fingers and open and close his fist.  The sense of touch returned to it.  We have to imagine the reaction of the man, for it was so overshadowed by the bitterness of the Pharisees that this is what Luke describes: “They became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.”  They probably bolted from the synagogue, unable to bear the presence of the Lord and the man whom he had healed.  They go off to break the Sabbath by their plotting the Lord’s death.  Jesus, in fact, did not break the Sabbath here, but went against the interpretation the Pharisees baselessly put upon the Sabbath laws. 

We can see here that God will not allow us to decide what he can and cannot do, but we can also see in this account how God comes to the earth, signified by the synagogue, in order to heal the human race from the sin which has withered it, that is, the original sin which wounded human nature.  The devil, that is, the Pharisees, is powerless to stop him, but howls about the healing and forgiveness that he brings and looks for ways to destroy him.  Looking at the account this way helps us to understand something of the mindless and senseless state of those who hated (and continue today to hate) the Lord.