The man with a withered hand, 

or « to visualise faith ».

Matthew 12 ; 9 to 14

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.

And they asked him (Jesus), saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath ?” —that they might accuse Him.

Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?…

Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

—

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand”. And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there.

—

In this passage, Jesus answers to a vicious question from the Jews that were in that synagogue, by referring to someone who had only one sheep and whom he would want to save on a Sabbath day…

But, first, let’s see this : Jesus, by his words, leads us to see two things and not only one: Two situations, two beings, and so on.

Indeed, in front of a man who had a withered hand, he evokes, in parallel, a sheep that had fallen into a pit. Therefore, two images are given to us at the same time in this text; and we won’t lose anything if we accept to see the whole thing as Jesus presents it to us: That is, two things in one. This is the only way to grasp this text, in order to understand it, because it is presented in this way by Jesus Himself.

The man with the “single sheep” must therefore have been very poor, since according to Jesus he had only one sheep; and moreover, still according to what Jesus said, this sheep was crippled.

I say this because if the man with the withered hand was indeed crippled, his “representation”, or his “double” if you prefer, that is to say “the sheep in the pit”, must have been too. And, in my opinion, this is why this sheep could not get out of the pit by itself : Because it was lame, having a lifeless leg.

(Many people are at this point today, despite over 2000 years of Christianity).

Yes, if the man in question had what is called a “withered hand”, the sheep must then have had a “lifeless leg”, Jesus presenting it to us in this way.

(We also see that Jesus, positioning Himself as “the man so poor who only had one sheep”, and a lame sheep in top of that, that’s how Jesus described Himself: No property, no wealth, except for an only sick sheep).

By saying these words and then healing the sick man, Jesus was thus indirectly declaring to all those present, that in this place he recognized as really belonging to him, only one person, one single sheep.

– Who ?

– This one single sick person !

Yes, I know that it can make teeth gnashing, but I believe more in what Jesus shows us than in the reactions that people can have towards Him.

What a lesson it was for those who had asked that vicious question! A question that was supposed to destabilize Jesus so that they could finally accuse Him !

—

Let’s not forget the context of this case :

Jesus was in a synagogue of Jews – of Jews under the law – and therefore “under the law of the Sabbaths”. And they all knew that Jesus was challenging all traditions, and even -apparently- the Law of Moses! And the text reveals that this small group of religious people -under the law-, had devised a sublime scheme to accuse Jesus while He was doing good to someone who was sick.

“It is strange, don’t you think, to receive Jesus in a religious place with the intention of catching him out and accusing him; and all on the back of a poor cripple!”

So, knowing that it was in order to accuse Jesus, I conclude that these religious people knew, but badly, what the Sabbath allowed and what it did not allow, otherwise they would not have asked Him this vicious question.

Yet, although their primary intention was to accuse Jesus about a point of the Law, in order to try to catch him out, we hear them ask a subtle question :

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath ?”

In sum, they presented themselves as “those who did not know”…

It is strange, don’t you think?

Indeed, why did they not say to Jesus outright: “Jesus, we know that you heal the sick, even on the Sabbath; but here we will not let you do. Here we respect the law”.

But no, they didn’t say that; they didn’t have the courage.

Why ?

Because their law contradicted them.

Yes, between “the letter of the law” and what their hearts were saying, there were jostling, contradictions, unanswered questions, and so on.

The law is a trap indeed. I am talking about the written law, not on hearts, but on stone…

Why do I say their law? Because that is what Jesus told them in John 8:17: It is also written in YOUR law…

Note: See that according to, I write Law, or law, or law. Law being the beautiful Law of God, law being the natural side of this law, and law as the law of death.

ThuIn fact, their law, which asked them to “love your neighbor as yourself”, also told them that it was forbidden to do anything on the Sabbath day, even to save someone. So it was forbidden to pull a sick sheep out of a pit into which it had fallen, for example.

Thus, their law that was supposed to help them, or give them boundaries for their consciences, trapped them in its application. They were trapped by their own law. They were blocked by it, still not understanding how one can come to “be blocked by such a perfect Law”!

So, blocked by this law, -their law-, we see these religious Jews making sure to invite Jesus to violate this law that blocked them.

They did this for at least three reasons :

– First, because in themselves, they were not sure at all what to do or not to do in a serious case, on a Sabbath day, such as coming to the aid of someone who would be in danger of death if not helped immediately.

– Secondly, was healing a person a work, a “physical effort“?

– Thirdly, since Jesus was disturbing them in their “very particular exercise of the Law”, they wanted to make use of this kind of “legal vacuum of the law” in order to be able to accuse him better, as it is written in this text…

But, when you think about it… when you are so sure about a law that is supposed to validly direct you, why then ask, “Is it lawful?”

I ask you!

The Jews… where they so sure of themselves with this “law of Moses“?

Wasn’t this law contradictory, on the contrary?

Or put another way, “How can you love your neighbor as yourself, while leaving him to die in a pit on a Sabbath day, if by misfortune he fell into it?”

Problem…

Indeed, by asking the question as it was presented by the Pharisees, they were inviting Jesus to violate the Law, even though they themselves would have been very embarrassed not to be able to rescue, in a situation of immediate danger, one of their relatives on a Sabbath day, and perhaps even a simple sheep, since Jesus evoked the matter in this way.

In sum, the Pharisees wanted to receive an answer coming from Jesus on such a thorny question, but at the same time to be able to accuse the one who would have given the answer…

A very difficult and perilous situation, don’t you think?

I personally find that here is the worst way to receive a favorable response to a question ; to a question I would ask someone directly.

In sum, on the one hand the Pharisees wanted Jesus to comfort them; to give them a “boundary to their consciences“; a valid reference point, but at the same time one that would enable them to accuse him.

(All the art of a good equilibrist is required to ask the question in this way)…

They were also asking this question so that Jesus, in His answer, would press somewhere on the misinterpretation of the law they had of it.

But you see, Jesus couldn’t do that. He couldn’t mislead them.

So they had the yes and the no in them, and that bothered them. However, they could not get rid of this yes and this no.

Strange guardians of a temple of the Law, these people!

—

On the other hand, let’s also point out the fact that until then, no one had been able to heal the man with the withered hand, which is significant in itself, although the priests were supposed to have some of this role, according to the Law.

Indeed, although the priests were rather men who “noticed” this or that disease, and also the healings when there were some, they were like intermediaries between the Lord and the men, in the middle of the people; and thus when the people went to them, it was rather towards the Lord that they went, therefore with faith in the Lord through these instituted men.

Their role was therefore to encourage in order to heal; and that’s why I say that the priests had this “very particular” role.

Let us note moreover that Jesus had not asked anything of anyone when he entered the synagogue, but that he was publicly called out to ask him a kind of “trick question”.

I think that if I had been in the place of Jesus, I would have answered more or less this: “Oh, since you take it like that and you want to trap me, I’m leaving, there you have it !

However, I am me, and Jesus is Jesus…

Jesus, He, was less concerned about Himself than about the man with the withered hand.

I, of course, in such a situation would have been concerned first about my reputation as a good christian. But He, Jesus, was more concerned about the sick man, probably for a long time, because a withered hand, I think, does not happen all at once.

How different Jesus is from me! Where I stop, He begins. Where I give up, He lifts me up.

In truth Jesus is my substitute in every way! He is my Savior. He is the Savior of what I am.

——

The ancient Scriptures did not say exactly whether healing someone was a work or not; therefore, whether it was lawful, or not, to save a person on the Sabbath day.

Indeed, the law of Moses forbade any work on the Sabbath day. So if Jesus, in response to the question, agreed not to heal this sick person on the Sabbath day, He was implicitly acknowledging that healing someone was indeed a “work”.

Problem…

But honestly, do you think it was a “work” for Jesus to heal the sick, even if we ignore what it secretly cost him? (It is indeed written in the book of Isaiah that He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…)

So the question the Pharisees asked Jesus so viciously was actually directed at his conscience, to try to pin him down there, and then accuse him.

Moreover, you should know that the law always addresses itself to the human conscience in this way, in order to set a trap for it.

What the law -through the Pharisees- wanted to do to Jesus, it also does it to all those who live under the same law.

The only way to avoid being trapped in our conscience is to get out of this regime as soon as possible, and move on to another. As it will be seen later.

But, as the wisdom of Jesus is immense, in order to answer a question addressed to his conscience, he answered with another question addressed to the conscience of the Jews who had asked it, -but badly-, and especially with a bad state of heart.

Today we would say: “Return to sender”.

—

But Jesus went much further: Instead of just making those religious people who wanted to accuse him feel uncomfortable, He continued his speech and gave a kind of little moral lesson to those who had questioned him: he also asked them a question, asking them what they, in normal times, would have done if they had had a sheep in danger on a Sabbath day.

In sum, Jesus spoke to their hearts, while the religious used not very well defined articles of the law of Moses…

Jesus wisely did not give them time to answer his question, probably so that they would not feel “obliged to lie”, saying, for example, that they would have let the sheep die in the pit because of the “holy Sabbath”.

If Jesus had given them time to answer, it would have been impossible for them to answer Jesus’ question without lying. But Jesus is not the one who encourages lying. On the contrary, He wants us to have the Truth in us, and not lies!

On the other hand, Jesus, knowing that he was speaking to religious Jews -that is to say, Jews who were educated in the content of the Torah-, reminded them that the Scriptures say indirectly, and not formally, that animals were inferior to man.

Indeed, he declared, “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?”

I mean that, here, Jesus left what He said to the appreciation of each person.

Jesus did not say: “It is written that the animal is inferior to the man”.

Jesus used what these educated Jews knew intuitively and coming from “the Word”, but in an unwritten way, as in the case of animals in relation to men. Thus, He left it up to them to give the right answer.

The thing presented in this way became irrefutable, yes, but irrefutable in their conscience; in their appreciation! And this is precisely where Jesus wanted to work: in their conscience; that is, in the very place where the Jews had wanted to trap him a few seconds before.

Yes by the : Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep…making it so obvious, Jesus was moving them from a legal regime to one where conscience alone is at work.

——

But I would like to come back to the famous: “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?…

By speaking in this way to all the people present in that place, Jesus was thus posing as the shepherd of this one sheep !

The only person that Jesus considered as his true sheep at that moment was this poor man who frequented this religious place, but who was still not healed of his withered hand; and also in danger of another much more serious disease, which Jesus finally also healed in this man. (We will see this later).

It is therefore as the only shepherd in this place that Jesus could tell the sheep to “stretch out his hand towards Him”. That is, towards Him alone!

Yes, He alone.

The Pharisees had used this sick man to accuse Jesus… so Jesus took care of the man who had been presented to him…

This is Jesus. This is the One I love and believe in. And there is a lot to believe in!…

So Jesus was a trusted shepherd for this sheep; a sheep that may not have known it was a sheep, since it was only Jesus who said that. And furthermore a sheep that had an owner… A sheep that had a shepherd.

The local people should have told this sick man that he was, at the very least, a sheep of the Lord’s flock. But no, Jesus had to mention it with precision.

Indeed, this man later discovered that he belonged to Jesus… But after the fact. After his healing.

He probably didn’t know that he was one of the Lord’s sheep, but he found out when he heard Jesus talk about his “only sheep”, and then when he turned to the “sick man“.

Indeed, it was from the moment Jesus turned to the man with the withered hand that this sick man began to see something very particular… Very particular indeed.

Indeed, at that very moment Jesus was only speaking… It was only the Word of Jesus that this man with a lifeless hand was hearing. And this Word began to have an effect on this sick man, so sick…

So, by transposing the notion of a sheep to a notion of a man, and then coming to rescue this man, Jesus was showing that he wanted to get this sheep/man out of a “pit”…

Yes, a real pit; a pit that was right where it was, inside the synagogue !

Think of how offensive this was to the place where the religious Jews were !

What a lesson, again !

“The synagogue and those who were in it, a pit ? ? ?” …

How can a religious place become “a pit of perdition” ?

The question is asked here…

—

In any case, what I see is this:

The legalistic religion wanted to accuse Jesus; but in the end it was the legalistic religion that was itself accused.

And concerning the sick, he was cured, not only of his illness, but even more of the doubt that the law left on the fact of this sick “sick for so long, very long, too long”…

For you must know well the kind of doubt that someone could have towards such a man, thinking that he must have a very big sin on him to be so sick, so sick, and for so long…

– Yes, that kind of doubt that makes someone say: “Surely he must have committed a very big sin, or several...

– And besides, he doesn’t have faith, because if he did, he would have been cured long ago…

This is the kind of thing that “righteous” people usually say.

But, fortunately, Jesus does not see what men see… so badly!

—

By these statements, and especially by healing the man with the withered hand, Jesus was necessarily placing himself as “the one who was outside the pit”, that is, above it to pull out someone who had fallen into it on the Sabbath day.

What a beautiful image is presented to us here !

What happened when this was presented?

It happened that the religious Jews, because of the new position that Jesus took, namely: “Above the pit and lifting up a sick sheep”, these religious people necessarily found themselves inside it, since Jesus referred to the whole thing as “a pit“.

But more than that, in this picture, there was only Him who saved the sick man.

More than that : The thing being thus presented, it was all the synagogue which became thus “the pit which he evoked”; and Jesus found himself de facto above all those who were in this pit from which we cannot leave, except if someone from outside takes you out.

But it happened that the thing was made visible by the fact of the healing of this man, otherwise all this would have been only “words”, as we commonly say.

Thus, after Jesus spoke about a sheep that had fallen into a “pit” on the Sabbath day, he then healed the man.

But what did this man receive from Jesus?

Two things, and not one : He was healed of his withered hand, that’s for sure; but he was also healed of the context in which it happened : The synagogue, the law, the Sabbath, and so on…

For him it was “to be saved from a pit, and not only from a disease”…

Indeed, there was only One who happened to be out of the pit to pull out someone who fell in: Jesus ! This is Jesus the Savior, since that is the translation of His Name.

Yes, when someone accuses and another saves, then we clearly see “who is in the pit and who is out of the pit”.

It is the “practical situations of life” that demonstrate these things, more than they show them. There is no need to be a great theologian to understand this in such moments.

——

In the light of these facts, it is quite easy to distinguish which side I am on today :

– Am I still in the pit of the law ?

– Have I been pulled out of this pit ?

– Am I now in a position to pull somebody else from that same pit ?

I say this because let’s not forget that, as Jesus presents it, for Him it was the whole synagogue, that is to say the people who were in it, as well as the doctrine that was taught in it, which was in itself an enormous pit of perdition from which one does not come out! Especially when you are sick !

We hold on as much as we can in these places named “pit” by Jesus; but we must recognize that the final verdict of a pit is death. A slow, awful death !

There is no other way out than death unless someone pulls you out of it like Jesus did. This is what happened to Joseph, the image of Christ in inspired Scripture.

This law does not help you, which is a pit in itself. Rather, it drives us down with its “power of condemnation“. It leaves no hope, since after this “ministry of condemnation”, the ministry of death takes over.

Jesus therefore placed Himself as “the One who could bring out of a religious pit anyone who would stretch out his hand to Him”.

Personally, I am one of those who believe that the same things are still happening today, because there are as many pits as there are religions under the law and without a true Christ, even though He is named and quoted at all times in the so-called “christian” churches.

I am one of those who still believe that the Lord Jesus is still the same, by his Spirit, and who moreover is now glorified and has all power.

—

It is therefore possible to easily recognize a place full of christians.

How  ?

We can recognised it by “those who are inside this place”, because these people are of the race of those who can testify that they were lifted out by Jesus from the pit in which they were before, and what they became afterwards, after they were lifted out.

That, in my opinion, is what a true christian place is. It’s a place where you don’t just know Jesus, but a place where He is the Savior of all. That is to say, the One who got us all off the hook in relation to the law; the ministry of death.

2 Corinthians 3 ; 6 Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The letter without the Spirit is deadly, because it does not translate the thoughts of God, which are always in grace; the letter without the Spirit comes from angels, intermediaries.

7-8 if the “ministry of death“, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance ; which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

It is enough to read in Exodus 19 how dangerous it was to be on this mount Sinai, which is in Egypt; death awaited all those who wanted to approach the Lord.

It was indeed “the ministry of death”.

9 For if the “ministry of condemnation” had glory, the “ministry of righteousness” exceeds much more in glory. (Justification).

In that place and in this time, this kind of “fury” that we do not know about our Father, was the opposite of all the care that the Eternal One lavished on His people whom He had saved from Egypt and its slavery.

If there was condemnation and its ministry, it was only because of the abandonment of faith.

—

Genèse 15 ; 6 And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Romains 4 : 3 For what does the Scripture say ? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him “for righteousness“.

—

Sincerely, knowing Jesus “intellectually” does not allow us to really know Jesus as Savior. Yes, a true Shepherd who “lift out of a pit”, and not the so-called shepherds who put you there, in that pit, and who keep you there by the rigid exercise of the law ; law misunderstood by all the false shepherds that the earth can bear.

It may indeed happen to a man to fall, either morally or spiritually, but the important thing is to see the result when Jesus rehabilitates him! When this happens, I see the Glory of God manifesting itself !

—

To come back to our subject, by speaking like this, Jesus was clearly saying that this place, normally of help and grace, had become in fact a dangerous place because of the so-called sabbaths to be respected…! ! ! And the proof that it had become dangerous is that the Pharisees themselves consulted each other on ways to destroy Jesus, to the point of forcing Jesus to withdrew from that unhealthy place.

Believing friends, may God never let such a thing happen to you !

May Jesus never be forced to leave because of our wickedness caused by a maintained legalism.

Indeed, the law misunderstood makes man wicked, proud, insensitive, incoherent, even with his own common sense ! There are several examples of this in the scriptures, in encounters between Jesus and the Pharisees for example.

“A religious place, unhealthy place ?” Undoubtedly I must be losing all reason !

Yes, no doubt…

—

Ah, the law of Moses (obligations, prescriptions), when it is misunderstood and badly lived, how much devastation it causes !

In fact, the Law of Moses is full of grace in itself, full of concern for others, full of goodness; but it is the “commandment” that is not.

Indeed, there is no grace in any commandment !

A commandment is made to obey, not to find a notion of grace in it, because the very meaning of grace is to give us grace for everything we had to do before by commandment.

A “commandment” is never gracious; grace necessarily is, since it is the source of what is gracious.

But this is here another study.

——

Did the representatives of the Law, the Pharisees, care about the man with the withered hand? Not at all !

No, for them, the man with the withered hand was: “The man who was just well-timed to be able to accuse Jesus of profaning the Sabbath”, that’s all.

Jesus understood this, of course, and He used their own trap to teach them a severe lesson within their rigid exercise of the Law.

Yes, severe, although even when Jesus severely corrects a man or men, as is the case here, it is for him “another way” of saving man.

Sometimes it takes us a little time to understand this. It’s more or less long depending on the person, depending on the personal case. Sometimes it’s pretty quick, but from experience I know it’s pretty long.

—

In fact, the man’s withered hand was lifeless.

This hand was therefore useless; on the other hand it had to be carried. But a hand or an arm is heavy to carry ! Moreover it is really cumbersome.

Everything this man could do was difficult for him, because of the imbalance caused by the “lack of life in one of his two hands”.

On the other hand it is written that the withered hand of the man was unhealthy, I want to prove that it is written: and it was restored as whole as the other.

I know believers who continuously carry around a part of their person and their life that they would like to be rid of because it is unhealthy. But it turns out that for these people, Jesus has much better things to offer : He does not necessarily want to rid them of something lifeless. No, he wants to give back the Life where it was lost.

This is also the the Glory of God!

—

So this unfortunate man was unbalanced in his strengths and in his means. He was a sort of lame man, but with hands…

Hands are used to take, to catch, to shape, to touch, to feel, to recognise, and so on…

I think it must be terrible when you try to hit a withered hand and it doesn’t feel anything. I think there are days when you have to get to the point of yelling at your hand or arm to finally get it up !

“I’m tired of carrying you!”

“Move over a bit !”

“Help me!”

“You tire me !”

“Live then !”

In fact, this man’s withered hand had everything it needed as an organ, but it was the life inside the organ that was missing.

How often does that sound like us, don’t you think? To be dead, although alive. But in this case, know that it is not on the side of the law that you must seek help, because in this dangerous place you are not healed; no, you are left to perish little by little in a pit of commandments impossible to put into practice.

(That whoever believes in Him should not perish)... (John 3; 16)

Should not perish brothers and sisters; understand.

It is initially about being in perdition, then dying for good. It is very dangerous because it comes little by little. You don’t see it coming.

We cannot, or no longer, feed our inner being.

We are hungry, but we don’t know what we are hungry for.

We feel weaker and weaker, but we tell ourselves that it is temporary, that it will pass.

Then one day you don’t get up, you don’t get up anymore.

It’s over, we’re dead.

It is also like a well-built man who has everything he needs in life, but who does not have the Life of God in him: It is unhealthy. He then comes to believe that God can never come to him and restore him, given the darkness of his life.

And yet, we are greatly mistaken in this respect, for it is there that God delights to restore, to heal, to rehabilitate. Moreover, it is always He who comes to man, as it is the case here again with this man in the pit; and with a withered hand, on top of that.

But a real worker with a right message must reach the man who fell into a pit on the Sabbath day…

Sometimes also the worker is there with the right message; but we doubt it, because our culture under the law is doubt, since under the law it is the man’s own forces that are required of him :

Romans 10 ; 5  : For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law,

The man who does those things shall live by them.

(That is, he will live by these things “practiced”).

What a program! What an assurance! What security to be able to live as long as we are totally in order with the law…

So it’s not going fine, of course, if we fell into that kind of pit.

Nothing happens in this pit. In this place we doubt that someone will pull us out, because we don’t know exactly this evil in us that makes everything go wrong, that there is no real divine Life, while the Scripture speaks to us of a real Life, and moreover of a life in abundance, towards those who believe. Let us read it :

John 7 : 37-39 : On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying :

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit (living water), whom those believing in Him would receive ; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

However, Jesus died.

Then he was resurrected by the Father,

Then he was glorified by his resurrection, followed by his elevation…

—

What can prevent, now, to see the manifestation of these “rivers of living waters” flowing out of the belly of those who believe in Him? From those who speak freely, by the Spirit, of the things from above, and especially of the free salvation of which they are the beneficiaries ?

Normally, nothing.

Unless something foreign has managed to permeate into a person, – to that faith in question. Something that is not faith and whose nature is translated in the text by the term “unhealthy“.

It can also come from the fact that we have not been properly introduced to the Jesus who is “out of the pit“, ready to get us out of it, if by misfortune we have fallen into the “bath of law“, the bath of a religion that does not have a living Christ for ever and ever!

—

I’m coming back to the subject:

However, the man in question, the man who had a “withered” hand, did not hesitate to follow the Word of Jesus since it is written: “And he stretched it out and it was restored as whole, as the other“.

Thus, by giving life back to this hand, it is indeed the “healthy” side of the thing that came back into his lifeless hand.

—

However, let us not lose sight of the fact that all this took place in a synagogue of Jews. We can therefore ask ourselves what exactly was this “unhealthy” side that we are talking about here.

Unhealthy doesn’t seem like a very serious thing… But let’s see though that Jesus, He, calls it a pit; such a pit that you need someone from the outside to come and pull you out, which means that if there’s no one around, well, you die; you die in the pit you fell into.

—

This rescue towards the man also gave him back his balance, as rightness in his thoughts. This one did not force any more in the wrong way, he did not shoot any more in the wrong way, which causes serious secondary evils.

You know, when we are permanently at odds, especially with the biblical truth, we are not in good spiritual health and we suffer from it, but without really knowing what exactly we are suffering from. Most often it is the lack of life in us that is felt, not to mention the feeling of a great fragility.

I say this because in the Bible there are many similar cases.

——

“And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath…”.

Here I would like to emphasize that the word “Sabbath” is translated (in english) as “rest”.

A pit, as it is presented in this text, well it is like a trap; it is like quicksand where, “the more we struggle, the more we sink”.

So if I translate the thought of the text faithfully, I then come to this: “Falling into a trap on the day I should find rest”…

Yes, Jesus formally declares, through this double image which is “the man with a withered hand on a Sabbath day” and its parallel: A sheep fallen into a pit on a Sabbath day, that this was exactly what was happening there, at that precise moment: That the man with a withered hand was indeed Jesus’ sheep, first of all; but above all, that the place in which this man was, was really a dangerous place, because we perish there; we die there little by little.

To meditate…

—

“Stretch out your hand“! … said Jesus to the man with the withered hand.

“And he stretched it out ; and it was restored as whole as the other”.

From then on, a great subtlety is contained in this inspired text. Something very great, “very revealing” for someone who knows how to appreciate the invisible but visible things!

How to express it?

– In the first quotation we can see that it is “the owner of a sheep who lay hold his sheep to take it out”.

– And in the second quotation we now see that “it is Jesus who asks the man to stretch out his hand“. The withered hand, that is.

(I want to point out that this is pecisely the unhealthy hand, because man’s religion generally has the principle of presenting the best of oneself to God. Maybe to pay for something or to say that we are not so bad after all. Who knows…)

No, show me your hand, the unhealthy one, the one that is sick. The other one doesn’t need care because it is healthy.

This means everything in itself, if we are willing to to deepen what the Spirit wants to reveal to us in this very particular passage.

So I ask this question:

“In this second passage, who, ^-exactly-, lay hold of the man’s hand?”

We’ll say: “Well, it’s Jesus, of course”.

However, the text does not say that Jesus took the man’s hand, just as a sheep that has fallen into a pit cannot, by the mere fact of stretching out its leg, pull itself out of a pit, if there is not, in addition, another arm and another hand to pull the whole sheep up, out of the pit…

It only says “that when he stretched it out, it was at that very moment that the hand of the sick man became healthy, like the other.

Let’s read this :

“He stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other“.

This means that there was no physical contact between this lifeless hand and Jesus…

So It was when the man stretched out his hand towards Jesus, who asked for it, that the miracle took place.

It seems a bit complicated; it’s a bit “unreal” all this, because obviously in this text, no one grabbed the hand of this sick man, although Jesus’ statement about a sheep falling into a pit evoked the fact of “lay hold of”. So that the owner of the sick sheep would lay hold of it :

….. Will (he) not lay hold of it and lift it out?…

Therefore, it is indeed a question, in the first image, of “laying hold of”; to lay hold of a stretched hand…

But this statement of Jesus about “laying hold of”, “laying hold of the leg of his sheep”, was in another image, -the first one-, where it was about a sheep that a man owned; the only sheep he had“. It was in this context that it was a matter of laying hold of; in short, that it was the owner who had to lay hold of the leg of his sheep.

So what are we to think ? It seems that things are reversed in reality, since it is the man with the withered hand who stretch it out, but which we do not see Jesus taking it; or that now it was the man’s turn to lay hold of Jesus’ hand, after having stretched it out, so that he could finally be healed.

Apparently, yes.

However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that everything that was happening there, at that very moment, was happening in full view of everyone!

How then could Jesus present to the religious Jews the vision of a man “who himself lay hold of his only sheep that has fallen into a pit”, and that when he speaks to the man with the withered hand in the synagogue, in full view and hearing of all, he asks him to “take his hand, to shake it” ?

Impossible! Impossible in the middle of a place under the law ; a place “under the law of sabbaths”.

– If the man came to carry his sick hand by means of his healthy hand, was this not a “work“?

– Wasn’t this an impediment to the complete rest that the Sabbath requires ?

– Wouldn’t there have been a strong reaction from the Pharisees ?

– Wouldn’t a sanction have fallen on the sick man who “carried his hand to another to pull him” ?

—

What are we to think of all this ? What are we to think of such a double declaration ? Has Jesus gone back on His first statement ?

Apparently there might be a mistake in what Jesus said ?

How is it that the man was asked to “stretch out his hand”, when Jesus had mentioned that it would be Himself who would lay hold of it on the Sabbath ?

What a mystery…

In fact this text leads us to see two images at the same time, “as a preparation for seeing a third image“, an invisible image.

– The first image: A man laying hold of a sheep in a pit.

– The second image: A man with a withered hand and which he stretch it out to Jesus when he asks him to; then that heals at the very moment he stretched it out.

– Then the third image which is invisible.

So what is it about these two images that makes it possible for Jesus to lay hold of the man’s hand without yet touching it ?

It is a mystery. A kind of enigma.

Je vous en propose la réponse :

I propose you the answer of it :

The difference between the two statements, or between the two “images presented”, is faith, which, although invisible, had the power to appropriate what Jesus proposed to the man with the withered hand.

Indeed, the fact of “laying hold of without laying hold of anything physical” is the preferred terrain of true faith.

However, let us not forget that in this case, it was not Jesus who had faith, but the man !

Yes, he had faith, this man; and then “he put into practice” his faith; the one that practices without ever practicing anything.

And if he naturally put his faith into action, it was because Jesus invited him to trust Him when He said to him: “Stretch out your hand”…

It was a sort of challenge. A challenge to the faith, him, the Jew, who is normally “under the law”… But go figure what can a man do when he has been ill for a long time and is only asked to strech out his hand to an other.

——

And since we’re here, I’d like to make this man talk a bit, if you don’t mind :

“You don’t stretch out to Jesus something ugly, come on !

You don’t stretch out to him a dead hand!!!

No, because the law teaches us to give the temple and the priests the best of ourselves and our crops.

So when Jesus asks me to stretch out my hand, which is not very pleasant to look at, and which also has a major visible defect, then a big problem arises for me: Should I believe what I see of my hand, or should I believe what Jesus is telling me ?

Moreover, “stretch out to an other” is a bit like offering to another; yet in the law it is strictly forbidden to offer to God anything that has a defect… And yet Jesus asks me to stretch out to Him this hand that is so unhealthy, so unhealthy…

But anyway, it can’t be any worse, since the law has never cured me of anything. On the other hand, I have heard a lot of things about this Jesus. So I put my trust in Him and I stretch out my ugly hand to Him, since that’s what He’s asking me.“

This, you see, is not at all the “rigid exercise of the law”, but on the contrary it is about the trust in Jesus the Savior. It is the one that saves and makes us have peace with God :

5 1-2 : Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access -by faith– into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Letter to the Romans)

In this passage, we clearly see that the primary capacity of faith is to give us “access to justification”, which itself is given to faith, as it was the case for Abram who later became Abraham.

—

What exactly happened to make this miracle occur in this way?

In reality, by the time Jesus was answering the religious Jews about their vicious question, let’s see that this “sheep/man” was there, present, and that he heard the whole conversation between Jesus and the religious leaders!

Just think what this man must have been wondering ?

Let’s try to put ourselves back in that precious moment. Let’s put ourselves in this man’s shoes, if you will :

– What is happening today in the synagogue ?

– What’s so new ?

– Why isn’t it the same as usual ?

– Usually, there is the reading of the Torah, then a song, then a prayer, and so on. ….

– But today this Jesus came into the synagogue, this Jesus of whom I had heard about ; and the rulers questioned him about me.

– Oh it’s true that they didn’t name me personally, but they did talk about whether you could “do a healing on the Sabbath”…

– So it is indeed about me. It is indeed about my case, but as a “cure”, and not so much about me as a “man”.

– But hey, if I’m included in it, it’s not that bad after all.

—

– But what do I suddenly hear ? I hear Jesus talking about “a certain owner of one sheep, of only one sheep“…

– But here, in this place, are we not all sheep of the Lord, according to the scripture ?

– So why does he mention only one sheep, this Jesus?

– Would that be me ?

– Would He be my owner, this Jesus ?

– Would He really be the one who wants to take care of my personal case ?

– And why doesn’t he tell me this directly ?

– I do not understand well. I don’t dare to understand, so great that it is, even if it’s still blurry in my head !

– I am afraid of making a mistake, of being disappointed at the end.

– I’m afraid to misunderstand.

– I am afraid to take for myself what would be for someone else, or for others.

– I’m afraid this is all a daydream.

– But yet, I hear something coming from him, for he speaks of this owner as one who will lay hold of his only sheep that is in perdition.

– What should I understand ?

– And by the way, I just realized that this famous story, which is also a question, this Jesus asked it to the leaders of the synagogue; therefore, it is their answer that – if it is really about me – will decide my fate.

– Then now, I am afraid; I lose hope because I know them well, these rulers, and I know that they will never respond favorably to Jesus, because He has another approach of the Law; another meaning of the the Law than the rabbis and the rulers. And they don’t like that.

– So if this is the case, all my hope is gone.

– What a shame, because I know that Jesus heals everyone He meets, everyone who needs Him.

– So what will happen given that my fate is in their hands ?

– If only I were asked, I would know what to say ! But I’m not even asked. Yet, I am the sick one !

– But, what is going on ?

Jesus speaks… He asks a question… He does not wait for the answer of the rulers of the law…

He tells them that it is therefore lawful to do good on the Sabbath, since they, the rulers, would have lift their own sheep out of a pit anyway, even on a Sabbath day.

– It’s crazy ! Jesus has finally managed to take authority over the conscience of the rulers.

Indeed, they do not speak anymore, they do not answer anymore.

– But what is happening today, in this synagogue, since Jesus entered ? How is such a sudden change possible ?

—

– But what else is going on ?

– Jesus moves, He comes to me.

What will happen to me ?

– He says to me “stretch out your hand”…

– I don’t understand. I had understood that it would be He who would lay hold of the sheep… That’s what He said though.

– Could it be that…

– No it is not possible, I am dreaming, I must be wrong !

– Could it be that stretching out my hand is actually “stretching out my trust” to him ?

– Would my hand, in this case, be the representation of a simple trust that becomes faith when I hear Jesus asking me to give it to him ?

– Wouldn’t it be “the one that grabs?”

– Wouldn’t it be the one that “lay hold of ?”

– “The one that lay hold of something without it being able to escape it ?”

– “The one that then clutches tightly what it has laid hold of ?”

—

– How new all this is ! I would never have had such thoughts, without this Jesus who is calling me today, in his own way.

– But what does he want to lay hold of from me, this Jesus ? My hand or my faith ?

– Probably my faith, since it is not planned that He will take Himself my hand. And yet, He asks me to stretch out… my hand.

– I must therefore understand that through my stretched hand, it is in fact my faith that He wants to lay hold of ?

– That’s it, I’ve got it!

– I understood that if Jesus acted like this, it was so that I would be healed first of all on the Sabbath, the day of rest… but without any human effort, such as laying hold of a hand, which would be a kind of work.

Yes, without any work whatsoever; without doing anything that the law of the Jews could hold against him, but which would allow me at the same time to be healed, to be cleansed.

– That’s it ! I think I understood correctly : He wants to save me, yes, but by means of faith, therefore without any law, since with this law it is always this :

“It is forbidden to heal on a Sabbath day”.

– So Jesus wants to heal me, yes, but by a new means, a new regime. A regime that “allows”, instead of “preventing”.

– So if this is it, I say to you: “Yes Lord, I stretch out my sick hand to you; I stretch out my sick faith to you, and this before the depositaries of the “rigid and merciless exercise of the law“, that are these religious rulers.

So much the worse for this law and for them, even if it is my natural roots that I lose, as well as my tradition.

– Yes my Lord, I stretch out all my faith to you; my Shepherd, my owner, the one to whom I belong, but whom I ignored before.

– Yes, I stretch out all my faith instead of my unhealthy hand, and I abandon the law, for it has brought me no help. It has merely “kept me wise in my sickness”, asking me to “be patient in the trial”…

In fact, I was perishing little by little, but with patience…

—

– Concerning you, Jesus, I know now that you knew me well, and even that I belonged to you; but I did not know you. There was just this sort of Word, which is yours, -very particular-, that I recognize instinctively ; I don’t know exactly why. It is as if I had always “known this Word”…

– Yes, I do it with joy, because when I stretched out my faith towards you, you said in your own way that at that very moment you would lay hold of it, this faith. But you would not lay hold of it visibly, not physically ; no, you would lay hold of it inwardly.

In fact, I understand that it will only be visible between you and me.

– You made me understand that between me and you, there would be a contact that would be made by faith, by which you would lay hold of me and you would heal me. And I understood your “message”.

– Yes, Jesus, I can clearly see now that you are my true Savior, the One who takes what is not very healthy in me, what is lifeless, and who, by the simple means of faith that you ask me to stretch out to you, makes it healthy, pure, and with the Life in it forever, the Life in abundance !

– You have spoken Lord, you have spoken to me, even through your dialogue with those of the law, whom you have succeeded to silence. And I heard your voice, the one that gave me hope, and then convinced me to stretch out to you this ugly, sick and lifeless hand, which was the image of a dead faith, coming from works that were dead in themselves, because they came from me, and not from You who only calls, who attracts and does not oblige.

– Your Word was strong, Lord, though inaudible to some ; for it was made for me, though it passed through me “in a discussion with men of law“.

– You made sure to talk to them while you were addressing me, so that they would understand later, one day.

– Lord you are good. You have healed me and given life back to me. The life you have given me has replaced my simple belief, my simple hope, in a living faith, for here and now the Life is in me.

—

This is more or less what I wanted to try to “show”, as a “simple image of what the biblical text showed me“, but which was difficult for me to explain otherwise than by this means, not very in conformity with the Christian habits, I admit, because I am not a theologian.

On the other hand, I’m convinced that there is much more to be learned from this single reflection, because for me “Jesus only works miracles”, because He is from heaven, and therefore we should expect much more!

—

Faith is therefore this famous “invisible but very real link”.

C’est comme un lien entre la terre et le ciel, un contact irrationnel mais bien réel entre le Créateur et sa créature.

Yes, it is this famous link of faith of the “man with a withered hand“, the one that allowed him to “stretch out the hand of faith”, that still gives us permission today to see Jesus, as by “vision in the invisible”, to lay hold of this hand, even though he did not touch it and all this was not visible.

—

Amazing !

Amazing Jésus !

Amazing faith and amazing inspired text !

– Once again, it is faith that makes these things possible.

– It is faith that allows an “invisible link between God and man”.

– When man stretches out his hand as for crying to God for help, then his faith links him to the One of whom it is said that he is: “The author and finisher of our faith“. The One who is the Author of it and who brings it to full maturity.

——

You see, with Jesus, it is not like with some very kind people who, approaching the unfortunate man in the pit, say to him :

“Don’t move, we’re coming to join you in the same pit as yours, to maintain your morale. Now, there will be a bunch of us with you in the pit.

You will see, more is better than one. It’s your cross to bear and we’re going to do it with you; you can count on us”…

– I did not see this notion of things in the text. I see instead that the word “lift it out” is specified; “lift out from the pit”.

– I don’t read “participate” in this passage.

No, it’s about “lifting out”.

I say this because, although Jesus was always compassionate with all men, when He met a person, it was to save this person.

When Jesus meets us at the turn of our lives, most often under the regime of the law, He saves, He saves and saves again.

—

I’m going to tell you a secret : Although I am totally saved “in Him“, Jesus saves me every day. Yes, He saves me especially from myself, and that is a lot, believe me !

——

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath ?”

Let’s now look at the picture that is proposed to us :

The religious Jews are there… The other members are there… Jesus is there… But the man with a withered hand is also there, let’s not forget it, although he was completely silent ! (Apparently this poor cripple was not feeling at ease, in the midst of all these people).

So everyone was present, and the sick man in the middle of the whole scene. And that’s when we cleverly hear, “Is it ‘lawful’ to heal on the Sabbath ?”

Yes, the question was clever. I mean, the religious rulers, instead of asking Jesus whether or not He had the right to heal this poor crippled man, they were asking Him if there was “a permission to do a healing on a Sabbath day“…

How impersonal, how inhuman, among other things, is all this…!

I say this because, by speaking this way, they forgot that the poor man was there, present, and that by speaking this way they strongly despised this sick man who heard everything, since they were not even concerned with his “person”. They were more concerned with the “right or not to be healed on a Sabbath day” rather than with the personal case of the cripple.

What an unbreathable atmosphere !

But fortunately, the Scripture tells us this about Jesus : “Then He said to the man“.

Yes, it is indeed to the man that Jesus addressed, because it is the “man” side of this sick being that interested Jesus, and not a debate about whether or not there was a right to heal on a particular day.

With Jesus, the tone changed.

He, Jesus, was more concerned with the sick man rather than with the “permission to heal a certain day or an other”.

—

Have you ever been sick ? Have you ever suffered for a long time ? If you have, I ask you to remember what it was like for you when your suffering came to an end. Normally, you let out a “phew !” of relief.

It is the rest, the rest of the disease and suffering.

Well, for this man it is his healing that was his own Sabbath; his own rest.

Could Jesus have asked himself questions about the Sabbath, since he brought with his healing this famous Sabbath of rest to a poor cripple ?

——

Before finishing, I would just like to raise a point that may not be obvious at first glance :

Jesus said, “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep ?“

By speaking in this way, Jesus was indirectly declaring to the religious Jews that if they were blocking him from healing this man under the pretext of the Sabbath, it was because they considered the man with a withered hand to be of lesser value than a sheep, and therefore less than an animal !

And all this in a context of “law of sabbaths”…

What thoughts !

Yes, Jesus said loud and clear that the Jews under the law were indeed capable of “going over the Sabbath to save one of their sheep“, but that they did not have the courage to do the same for a man ; therefore they considered a sick man to be of less value than an animal. And all this while using the law as a cover !

How horrible !

Brothers and sisters, fortunately we have Jesus instead of the law, so that we can finally practice the Law of God naturally !

JeanP