Redemptive Condemnation: Mark 3:4-6
What will Jesus use you to restore today? Some days my hope is to merely survive the day and return to my pillow alive. Other days my hope is to return to the pillow not just alive but a different man than I left it. Perhaps more often I should make a point to do my part to return to my pillow alive, a different man, and contemplating the feeling of being a vessel that God used to bring healing to the world.
Today, Jesus asks the religious elite whether it is lawful to do good or harm on the Sabbath. Jesus is really getting at the heart of what He taught in the story at the end of Mark 2. The Sabbath was created for mankind, not the other way around. The Sabbath rules are there to guide us, not restrict us. God created the Sabbath to allow us to rest from the work of the world and do God’s work instead. Certainly, healing would fall under the redemptive work of God and qualify as Sabbath approved activity.
The religious elite don’t even answer Jesus! Once again they stay silent. Had they answered honestly, Jesus could have had an opportunity to talk with them and change their mind. But they stay silent. They aren’t open to discussion, open to growing, and open to changing. They think they have it all figured out as they sit on their high and mighty proverbial thrones in judgment over Jesus.
Seeing their hear bent towards indignation, Jesus reaches out and heals the man. The hand is restored. Jesus is more than willing to do the right thing in the face of judgment. Jesus embraces judgment knowing the man experiences a demonstration of God’s restoration.
Taking this to the next level, observe how the religious elite respond. They immediately go find more religious elite who will support them. They begin conferring about how to do away with Jesus. By healing the man with the withered hand, Jesus takes the first steps towards the cross. The religious elite want to do more than discredit Him. The religious elite seek to destroy Him.
This story between Jesus and the man with the withered hand is a phenomenal vignette to the story of Jesus in general. The man with the withered hand is restored. He is restored at the expense of Jesus. Jesus embraces condemnation so the man can be redeemed. He does the same for us. Jesus willingly walks to the cross to embrace condemnation so we can be restored.
Yesterday it was asked if you are willing to follow Jesus. Today we can extend that thought to whether you are willing to follow Jesus knowing that He was willing to take on condemnation and die for you. This thought can still go further. Where are you willing to follow this man who willingly embraces condemnation so others may be restored? What will Jesus use you to restore today?
