Pastor Barry's "Chapter & Verse" Day 81
Pastor Barry's "Chapter & Verse" Day 81
March 22; Mark 3:5; 31/260(IV); ‘Stretch Out Your Hand’
Mark 3:5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
These few verses reveal so much. Only the Word of God can do this. Once again it was the Sabbath and Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man in the congregation who had a withered hand. The religious leaders were watching what Jesus would do, not because they had compassion on the man with the withered hand, but so they could accuse Jesus of ‘working’ on the Sabbath. What a sad commentary this is for the cruelty of religion. They knew Jesus could heal and they wanted Him to heal, not out of any kindness to this man, but so they could accuse our Lord. How this must have grieved Jesus. It would have to be doing good in the Law to heal someone on the Sabbath. The sad truth is that the religious leaders were jealous of Jesus and His healing power. They resented that He did what they could not. When Jesus healed the woman bowed over in Luke 13, she had been in this condition for 18 years. Jesus healed her on the Sabbath as well and the ruler of the synagogue was upset Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. The ruler said there are 6 other days in the week she could come and be healed, but not of the Sabbath. She had been in that condition for 18 years and the ruler never healed her of any of those days. The congregation rejoiced when she was healed. Jesus called the ruler a hypocrite and the ruler and the other religious leaders were put to shame. The Lord is good. He was good in the Old Testament just like He is in the New Testament. Religion is the worst enemy of the truth. It resents the attention given to others rather than to themselves. It would deprive people of blessings just so no one else could get the credit. Jesus’ heart had to break.