Waiting to Trap

Today’s Gospel Text:  Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 And they watched him, to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come here." 4 And 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. 5 And 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. 6 The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Hero'di-ans against him, how to destroy him. Mark 3:1-6

Reflection: This passage of the gospel brings out the great element of God’s nature and his love for us.

Here are a people who are waiting to accuse the innocent Jesus. The moment seems right:

It is the Sabbath and they know the weakness of Jesus (at least that’s how they looked at Jesus) to heal a person and Jesus is bound to exercise his weakness for showing off (this is how they may have perceived his actions).

And as expected; here there was a man with withered hand and Jesus invites him to come to him and stretch out his hand; and he is immediately  restored.

But what comes out still more strongly is the emotional reaction of Jesus over their hardness of hearts.

The hardness of the heart is seen not so much in the emphasis of the Pharisees on the law, instead at the root of it is the blindness to understand God’s priority when he gave the law.

This factor of applying the law irrationally without looking at the real human priority and purpose can be seen anywhere and in any society, as long as sinful humans exist.  This is unlike those who would deliberately misinterpret a law in order to beat someone out of vengeance.

Here the Pharisees were not merely misinterpreting the law as of priority but their greater aim seemed to be to indict Jesus.

Jesus' reaction is a righteous anger; if at the cross he cried out: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34), then here it must have been; "listen! see! believe! for you do not know what you are doing in the hardness of your hearts, where you are heading; the path of damnation.

As if it was not enough it made Jesus grieve at the hardness of their hearts; which was not a mere reaction for the sake of reaction but could best be surmised in a question: where are you heading (the path of hell fire)? Or what has happened to your humanity, that you don's seem to care about the suffering of your fellow human being?   

This can happen to anyone of us as we continue in a life of self-seeking, leaving out God and his saving help.

Prayer:  Lord, let me seek thee and by thy holy wisdom transform me and thy Holy Spirit guide me all through life’s journey, so that I may care of my brothers and sisters. 

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