Mark 3:1-6 The Man with the Withered Hand

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?" Jesus asks in today's Gospel. 

How very dead and lifeless the Sabbath seems in Jesus' time as it has succumbed to merely following lifeless rules; that the idea of caring for and bringing new vitality to a person would seem so against what the priests ordain as godly, is absurd.  The Pharisees always seems to be plotting against Jesus, trying to trick him and trap him into doing something against their laws.  We get a real sense that the man with the withered hand was placed in the synagogue on the Sabbath to see if Jesus would heal him.  Jesus' words should have had a biting effect and made them feel shame.  They are intolerant of a man who has just healed another on the Sabbath and picked the grain from the field because he was hungry.  Now, they want him to "condemn" himself even more. 

Sometimes in our own lives we feel like this too, that the world is against us, that at moments we feel that we can't trust others.  The Gospel tells us that he felt righteous anger toward them and grieved at their hardness of heart.  Nonetheless Jesus cannot waiver in the love that he has for mankind.  He came to save us from the power of sin and death.  If a withered hand brought a form of death to this man, then he will heal this man and set him free from not only the physical infirmity, but also his sins.  Christ Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.  As Christians we are called to be a pro-life people in all the forms that being pro-life may take, whether it is encouraging a friend, empowering children to be good stewards, respecting elderly persons, or upholding the dignity of the unborn child.  In this year of mercy, have you today followed Jesus by sharing His life with others? If not, what one thing can you do for someone else in God's name?  Remember, it doesn't have to be big, Jesus calls us where we are to work within our circles of friends and families first.  The Kingdom grows from there.

Mark 1: 21-28 Voice of Authority

In the Gospel today we are told that Jesus "taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes."  That is a strong statement.  The scribes had the legal authority of leadership over the people.  Jesus is not like them.  His authority is authentic because he is God the Son.  He is wisdom itself. Where they scribes rule with fear and punishment, he rules with peace, love and justice.  Because he is God, we have a duty of obedience to him.  Even the demonic spirit recognizes that, and even names Jesus, "The Holy One of God!"  At the Lord's command the spirit left the possessed man. 

May we ask ourselves whom we take as our supreme authority.  Is it man, or God who instills man with authority to lead?  May we "receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God." (1 Thes. 2:13)  May our hearts look to God the ruler of all and adhere to His laws as citizens of the Kingdom of God first, and then those of our own lands as is illustrated in today's Gospel.  Amen.

Addendum:  I was reminded this morning of the strong correlation between today's scribes and how their modern counterpart are today's managers and administrators.  The business world can sometimes seem like a cold an cut-throat place where the person is often times ignored.  In light of that today's Gospel may be a wake-up call, or a challenge to remember those people that we work with are people with thoughts and feelings too, not the automatons that we sometimes take them for.