Turn to and read Matthew 12 vs9-15. Here we encounter Jesus doing a miracle. It is the incident where Jesus Christ healed a man with a withered hand.
Jesus is in the second year of His ministry it is the year of popularity, people flock to Him to hear him or to be healed by him but there is growing opposition from the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and others.
WHOM THE SAVIOUR MET
It is the Sabbath, Jesus is in the synagogue in Capernaum. Here He meets a man with a withered hand. And here He meets the Pharisees men with withered hearts.
THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND
In the synagogue we are introduced to him by the word ‘Behold’, (KJV) the this word means look! see! It is in the imperative. Jesus heals many people but here in the synagogue this day God wants us to behold what is happening to this crippled man who has a withered hand. Luke’s Gospel tells us it was his right hand. No doubt it was difficult to earn a living, no doubt he was rejected by the people believing because he had an incurable ailments he was therefore under the judgemental hand of God. So here we have a man with a withered hand, a hand that no longer represented his power, his pleasure, his honour, his pride it was withered, dried up. The blood no longer fully flowed through it. There was existence but no life. It was functionless. It was the result of some kind of disease just like leprosy. This man then, was in a helpless, hopeless condition. Just right for Jesus, so behold, look.
Brothers and sisters ‘Behold’ God is calling our attention to look at a person of importance to us, the man with the withered hand. It isn’t the religious leaders with their robes on, it isn’t the one who puts the most into the treasury, it isn’t a duke or a prince, it isn’t the choir or musicians, it is the man with the withered hand, the one in a hopeless condition. It was then that Jesus came to him. And it is apparent that he knew his condition. Christ knocks on the door of this man’s heart ‘Stretch forth thine hand’ reach out in faith. He is made whole.
Notice there is a parallel to you and me when we came to Christ, a sinner in a hopeless condition who admitted our condition desperately in need of His healing touch. It was then that Jesus saved us, made us whole. Amen.
THE MEN WITH WITHERED HEARTS.
When Jesus entered into the synagogue He didn’t go to the Scribes or Pharisees or to the rich men, according to them they didn’t need healing of any kind, nothing withered about them. If only they had sincerely looked into their heart they would see it was just as withered as the man’s right hand.
‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?’ The Pharisees asked this question not that they might be instructed but that they might accuse him. Luke’s Gospel tells us they watched him that they might find an accusation. The whole of the synagogues eyes were upon Him. He traps the Pharisees in their own hypocrisy and the congregation knew it and the Pharisees knew it, in silence they left the synagogue straight way (before Jesus left) and they held council how they might destroy him, not imprison or banish but to kill. Withered hearts, how blind people can be even a miracle such as this carried out in their own synagogue in front of their own eyes could not turn them from darkness to the light of the world. What did Jesus do, knowing their council and their hearts (vs15) he withdrew himself from them He could no longer minister to them who found fault, who hate, who plan to destroy Him, who have nothing but contempt for Him, who try to put out the light that God has shined into their hearts. Theirs was the true hopelessness they were ships without a rudder in an ocean of unbelief that leads them to the darkness and blackness of a Christ-less eternity.
Have you been made whole?