“Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save or to kill?” But they remained silent.” Mark 3:1-4
“He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at the stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch our your hand.”
He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.” Mark 3:5
Jesus doesn’t ask for the man’s healthy hand. Jesus has no use in that moment for the man’s healthy hand. He asks for the shriveled hand. The hand that is in need of a healing from the Healer. And it is in the stretching of the bent and crippled toward Christ that complete restoration is found.
The law of the Sabbath said he couldn’t heal that day. The opinion of the Pharisees said he couldn’t heal that day. But Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Healer who comes to us
any day,
any time,
absolutely any where when our hands reach out to his. Because He is waiting for us. He doesn’t want us cleaned up, put together and polished off because all those self-help, self-righteous ways are things he can’t work with. If we’re already put together, already cleaned up then we don’t need him. When we do this on our own we settle for less-than and incomplete as though it is good enough. We figure we can manage the pain on our own or mask where we are broken. But we can’t. It all comes out, it all will show itself in time.
He asks us to stretch out our shriveled hand. The hand that is bent, the hand that is beyond repair; incurable; ugly. Not to shame us but to show us. He wants us to witness His complete restoration. A total restoring that only comes through One.
I have been there with that hand. And I not only learned to work with it, I also hid it under sleeves of perfection and of good works; sleeves of shame and guilt. I didn’t want to give Him that hand. I wanted to give Him the hand that I thought looked good, that I thought would be pleasing to Him. And to that hand He says:
“No… that’s not the hand I ask for. That hand that you think is good is one that I see as self-righteous. You’ve already done the work on your own, you’ve settled for less than what I am offering. And what that hand has built on its own will all fall. It can not stand. So put it down. Because I died for your crippled hand. I died for that hand that you hide in shame. I died for that hand that you feel is unworthy because I alone am worthy. That hand that you see as a disgrace, I see as beautiful. I see that hand as redeemable because I know the cure and I have the answer, I am the Answer. But I need you to reach that hand out to me.”
That hand slowly reached out from under the sleeves and toward our Healer. As it did, the full weight of all the shame and guilt and pain that the shriveled hand represented came down so heavily on my heart that I thought I might suffocate. In that moment of abandoning it to Christ and feeling the crushing weight of my sin and my wounds, He breathed life.
Burden released,
sin forgiven,
mercy a new. A breath of complete restoration.
No law or opinion made by man holds back our Father from grabbing hold of an outstretched hand of His child. There is no distance too long or shame too much for His Love to cover.
Stand up and stretch out your shriveled hand to a Savior who has a healing glory to show you.
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