Title: The Blessing of Restoring Your Hands
When Jesus came into the synagogue on the Sabbath, He met a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees had a great opportunity to accuse and arrest Jesus because work was not allowed on the Sabbath. According to the law, Jesus was not allowed to heal this sick man on the Sabbath day. So, they were watching to see if Jesus would heal the man with the withered hand. The Lord, who knows all this, healed the man with withered hand and asked the people, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?’ which means ‘which is right: to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?
- Hands mean the ability to work
If you look at Luke 6:6, it is written that his right hand was withered, and theologians predicted that the reason for this withered hand was due to stroke. For a stone worker, being paralyzed and unable to use his right hand, which is his main hand, means he has become incapable of doing anything to earn any income.
The word ‘hand’ in Hebrew is ‘yad’, and in Greek it is ‘keir’. Although this is a word that refers to a hand, which is a part of the body, it is used more often in the Bible to refer to the power of God or the work of God. When God created the heavens and the earth, He spoke, ‘Let there be light, and there was light,’ that is, He created it with the Word. However, the Bible also says that it was created by the hand of God (Psa 102:25; Isa 64:8). When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He brought them out through the 10 plagues. However, the Bible says that it was brought out by the mighty hand of God (Deu 6:21).
When the Israelites complained that they could not eat meat in the wilderness, God said that He will give them meat for one month. Then, the Israelites did not believe Him. At that time, God told Moses, ‘Is the LORD’s hand waxed short?’ and declared that feeding the Israelites in the wilderness was also done by God’s hand (Num 11:21-23).
When Jesus healed a deaf man, He put His fingers into both ears and blessed them, saying ‘Ephphahtha’ (Mark 7:33-34).
Seeing all the incidents above, the hand of God is described as the hand of creation, the hand of power, and the working hand. However, Gen 1:27 records that man was created in the image of God. Therefore, you and I must have the hand of creation, the hand of power, and the working hand. Furthermore, we should become the hands of creation, the hands of power, and the working hands for God.
The person with a withered hand in today’s text does not represent someone who was unlucky and suffered a stroke and became paralyzed. He represents Adam, whose hands were withered due to the fall (Gen 3:6). What did Adam use when he ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and disobeyed God’s word? He used his hands (Gen 3:22).
Originally, Adam’s hand was the hand of creation, the hand of power, and everything it touched should have been good, but after the fall, it became the hand of a curse, with thorns and thistles growing whenever it touches (Gen 1:28-29; Gen 3:18). Adam’s first son, Cain, killed his younger brother Abel. With what Cain killed Abel? He used his hand (Gen 4:11). What did people build the Tower of Babel with? It was built by their hands (Gen 11:3-4). Human beings, created in the image of God, were originally created to do God’s work and good works, and whatever we do with our hands should be prosperous and successful all the time. But, when Adam used his hands to do not good works, not the work of God, and to do things for his own benefit and interest, his hand became withered. The fallen human beings are the people with the withered hand, and you and I are the people with a withered hand.
- Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath
In today’s text, why did Jesus break the Sabbath? Did Jesus say that He didn’t need to keep the law because it was messed up and wrong? If it was so, then, Jesus must have never kept the Sabbath during the 33 years He was on this earth. However, as we see in today’s text that He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
He followed the custom of the people and the law regarding the Sabbath (Mark 3:4). The reason Jesus broke the Sabbath is because saving people is more important. In other words, He gave up the Sabbath because it was more important to heal those with withered hands (Jhn 5:17).
To the Israelites who thought God was resting after creating for seven days, Jesus is telling them that the Father is not resting. He needed to find and restore Adam, the man with the withered hand. The reason the Father works today is because He wants to heal us from the disease of withered hand. He wants to restore us to a man with a proper hand who does the good works and the works of God.
The reason why we need to work in the church is because it was how God planned from the beginning: Human beings, created in the image of God, must do God’s work and good works, so the church provides such opportunity to you.
The founding pastor often said that even though people have been in the faith for a long time, those who do not serve in the church are the most pitiful people. If you are a child of God, if you believe in God, you must restore your hands. Everyone must do God’s work. And the Bible says that only those with clean hands and those who do God’s work can stand in holy places. This is God’s unchanging law (Psalm 24:3-4).
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 