Context No. 3936 of 4322 · Luke

Luke 6:6-11: in context

6It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. 8But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up and stand in the middle.” He arose and stood. 9Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” 10He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other. 11But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.

In the synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus sees a man with a withered hand, and he knows the scribes and Pharisees are watching, hoping to catch him healing on the Sabbath so they can accuse him. Rather than avoid the confrontation, Jesus meets it head on, calling the man to stand up in the middle, and asking the watchers a pointed question: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?

Then he heals the man. Two things stand out. Jesus' clarity that doing good is never a violation of God's day. The Sabbath was made for human flourishing, and mercy shown to a suffering man honors it rather than breaks it; to withhold good that we could do is itself a kind of harm. And the tragic hardness of his critics, who cared more about catching Jesus than about a man being healed, and who responded to a miracle of mercy with rage. Their rigid religion had so twisted their hearts that they were angered by an act of compassion. There is a warning here against any religion so concerned with rules that it loses sight of mercy, that would rather condemn than see good done.

Has my sense of what is right ever hardened into a religion that would rather condemn than see good done, and do I hold, as Jesus did, that showing mercy and doing good are always lawful before God?

Sources

Luke 6:9: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?"
Luke 6:10: "He said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other."
Luke 6:11: "But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus."