In my last teaching, we looked at the time the disciples rubbed the grains of wheat in their hands on the Sabbath and the Pharisees accused them of working (harvesting) but Jesus warned them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Today I want to look at the very next passage in Luke 6:6-11 at an incident in which Jesus heals a man with a “withered hand” on the Sabbath. The same hand that rubs wheat was not able to do as much with this man. In this story, Jesus enters the synagogue on the Sabbath, “And a man was there whose right hand was withered.” The scribes and Pharisees were waiting to see if He would heal the man so they could accuse Him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus told the man to “Arise and stand here,” and so he stood. He then asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or destroy it?” After looking at them all, He told the man to stretch out his hand. Then it says, “He did so, and his hand was *restored as whole as the other*.”
Interesting that this special example of “working” on the Sabbath, meant to show that “saving a life” takes precedent over any law about “work,” would highlight how God chooses to demonstrate His Lordship over the Sabbath—in the healing of a withered hand. As I read this I sensed it is no accident, this particular healing, as other scriptures came to mind that reveal to us the significance of this focused miracle. Why a withered hand? Why so dramatic a demonstration—to save a life and not just a hand? What understanding can we gain by looking at this more closely and how can we apply the meaning to our lives? In this reflection, I aim to examine these questions more closely.
The first thing I noted was that this was his right hand, likely his dominant hand. In Matthew 5:30, Jesus says of one’s right hand, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” Jesus is talking obviously about how seriously we should take sin in our lives. That we should rid ourselves of sin to the very best of our ability, even taking drastic measures if we need to. However, I can’t help but see the message of the cross in this healing. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” In His cross, Jesus came not to hold us to account for sin but to forgive us through faith. He came not to judge but to redeem our sinful lives to His own holiness, sanctifying us by the gift of His Spirit when we place our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior.
This man’s withered hand signifies our own right hand, lost as we are in sin before we are healed and made whole again through faith, forgiven. Jesus does not require that we cut off our hand of sin but rather He chooses to heal us just like this man, and not just on any day but He chooses to “do good and not evil” on the Sabbath. The Christian Sabbath is on Sunday, the day that the Lord Jesus was resurrected from the dead. So it is no accident that this particular healing took place on the Sabbath (even if the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday), because it shows us that in Jesus’ resurrection, we too are resurrected from the death of sin and judgment on our day of faith.
I can just picture Jesus taking this man’s withered hand into His own before healing him. And I think God has used His hands throughout Scripture to show us His love from the beginning. In Isaiah 45:12, The Lord declares, “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.” Ephesians 2:10 states, “For we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, for good works which God which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them as our way of life.” So we see, God stretched out the heavens filled with His angels, the holy spirits that minister to the heirs of salvation—His children He created with His hands to do good works in life.
Furthermore, Isaiah 41:13 says, “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’” God is our help and He not only heals our right hand of sin, but He holds it to help us in our life in a myriad of ways. John 10:27-28 states, “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Jesus holds us secure in His Hand, saving us to heaven with His gift of eternal life to those who believe and follow His voice. This is His greatest help to us, keeping us secure in our eternal destiny in the safe palm of His hand.
So, that is how God takes our hand into His holy hands. Now what does He expect us to do with our healed withered hand. He has restored it to wholeness for a purpose. What purpose has He called us to? We saw in Eph 2:10 just now that He has created us in Christ Jesus for good works which He prepared beforehand to be our way of life. Paul called us in 1 Thess 4:11, “we urge you brethren…that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you…” Of his own work, Paul states in Acts 20:34, “Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me.” So we work quietly with our hands, providing for our own needs and those around us. Proverbs 31:20 states of the virtuous wife, “She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.”
We use our healed right hand to help those less fortunate. We may use them to glorify God with our gifts—music, cooking, gardening, engineering, carpentry, art or other activities uniquely granted us by God. We use them to embrace one another in His love—to cradle a child or hold their hand, to touch one another in our grief, to lay on one another in healing prayer or to fold in private prayer, to humble ourselves and cry out to God, beating our breast like the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14, that described him stating, “And the tax collector that was standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” This sinner went justified and forgiven, just as we do when we use our healed and holy hand to cry out to heaven in humility. Similarly, King David cried out to God in prayer in Psalm 141:2 stating, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” So we raise our hands in prayer in our need as sacrificial worship, just as we lift them in praise of God in prayers answered.
So let us remember always all that God has done for us redeeming our right hand of sin on His day of resurrection, His Sabbath, to the gift of forgiveness and mercy and eternal life. Let us remember His holy hands that stretched the heavens and created us in this earth for good works, keeping us secure in His hand and holding ours to help us in our way. Let us fulfill the works He calls us to, earning our keep and helping one another and those less fortunate. Let us raise our healed and holy hands in humble prayer and praise and worship, giving glory to our Great and Holy Maker. Praise You Lord for all You have done for us and for Your great Love! Amen.