My friend Alan LeFever is a great Church Historian and a comedian. Fearlessly, he shares the story about his arm. A stroke early in life limited his use of his right arm. You should know, though, he has lived an unlimited life. We took Greek class together along the way to seminary and our doctoral work. When we came to this passage, he raised his arm and urgently said to Dr. Cutter, “Let me translate this story, I love it.”
On the Sabbath, Jesus encountered a man with a withered hand. His opponents, the Pharisees were watching closely, not to see if he could heal, but whether he would do it on the wrong day of the week. I know. Right?! Jesus called the man to himself and asked a simple question about the Sabbath law. “Is it legal to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” If you know Jesus, you know he was going to ask this question. The shocker is the response of his would-be accusers. Silence. Not even crickets. No noise at all. Jesus was so mad!!! He told the man to stretch out his hand and for the first time his hand was well and whole.
Jesus has a way of revealing the truth about our souls. He shines his searching light into our darkness and we are often caught. It turns out God incarnate can heal withered hands. But what about our withered hearts? Oh, he can heal those, too, if we will let him.
