Restored Completely

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

RESTORED COMPLETELY

Luke 6:6-11

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"  10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

NIV

What is amazing here, is there seems to be no doubt in the mind of the Pharisees that Jesus has the power to heal. It wasn’t a question whether he would heal this man, but if he would do it on a Sabbath day. Evidently healing was considered work, which was considered unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus, on the other hand posed the question to them about which is better, to do good or evil on the Sabbath. This was one of those damned if you answer good, and damned if you answer evil questions. It simply did not matter how they answered they would be either giving him their approval to heal this man, or they would be admitting they approved of evil doing on the Sabbath. We have to notice they had no answer at all, knowing Jesus had caught them red handed so to speak. Of course this narrative also does not record that Jesus told the man, “I will heal you” Or “Your hand is healed” He simply told the man to stretch out his hand and it was normal when he did. It is implied, of course, that Jesus did in fact heal the man’s hand, and in doing so absolutely infuriated the Pharisees. Why are they so entrenched in a law that prohibits doing good on a Sabbath? Was that God’s intent? Surely it was not, but man has always, and will continue to add his own beliefs to the word and will of God. This is also showing us how they their perceived authority over the people was being disrupted by Jesus and this was the real point of their anger and frustration with him, which lead them to kill him. This was the will of God, of course, the killing of Jesus, for the redemption of mankind. God used the evil hearts of self-proclaimed righteous men. Jesus was pointing this fact out to them right there in their self-righteousness, that their hearts were in fact evil. We need to be aware of not getting trapped by self-righteousness all the while having thoughts that are not pleasing to God. How can we escape those thoughts? Are they evil if no deed accompanies them?  How some believers say they do not sin, in thought, word or deed is beyond actual reality, in fact in saying so, they have sinned in thought and word, lying both to God and themselves. Yet how are we to deal with our thoughts? How can we be perfect in thought all the time? It seems this is more the point Jesus was making rather than about doing good or evil on the Sabbath. The fact is they were doing evil in condemning Jesus doing the good. It is always right to do good, and always wrong to do evil, no matter what day it is. So this was more about seeing into our own hearts and applying the blood of Jesus to any evil that is present in our thoughts, words or deeds. This is about stretching out our life before Jesus and allowing him to restore it completely.