Joel M Bradshaw

1Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.–Mark 3

I just want to focus on the attitude of the Pharisees here. We live today in a highly politicized culture where opponents seem like enemies. And the media looks for ‘gotcha’ moments where they can spin a narrative against that person. This is clearly a gotcha’ (slang for ‘I’ve got you!’) moment.

These Pharisees saw the man with the deformed hand as a pawn in their game. His whole existence was for their narrative. They didn’t care about him or his restoration one bit. If they had, they would have celebrated his healing, not look to kill his healer. Again, the worlds of politics and media are famous for this kind of attitude. You shouldn’t be.

The chapter ends with the unpardonable sin. Only the hard heart on display here in these verses would ever commit that sin. And it’s an old pastor line, but it’s true: If you’re worried you’ve committed the unpardonable sin, you probably haven’t done so. The Pharisees here had such hard hearts that they actually angered and grieved Jesus in his heart. Jesus was concerned for the broken and they wanted to trap him. They wanted their gotcha’ moment.

Are you ever like that with God? How about with other people? Spend more time trusting God rather than trying to hold something against him. Spend more time caring for broken people than maintaining your selfish narratives. Your heart is probably harder than you know. I know mine tends to be when I wallow in selfishness.–JMB