Mark dedicated himself to showing Jesus’ ministry and, through that, revealing who Jesus is. In this section of his gospel, he used a chiasm. A chiasm is a literary learning technique. Mark used it to reveal Jesus’ power and authority over each part of life. These stories show how Jesus’ authority is greater than that of the Jewish leaders’ authorities. As Mark progressed in the telling of these encounters Jesus had with the Jews, he relayed Jesus’ power and authority more fully. Prior to this chiasm, the religious leaders had not confronted Jesus openly. The chiasm shows how their anger and hatred of Him increased from internal musings and questionings to outright, confrontational questioning. They challenged Jesus about who He thought He was. The religious leaders questioned Him about His power and authority to heal, forgive, cast out demons, set aside religious laws, and forgive sins.
How did Mark get us to the point of this chiasm? Mark told us about Jesus in the first two chapters. Jesus walked to the Jordan River to be baptized by John, His cousin. After that, God’s voice boomed from heaven, saying, “This is My Son, with whom I am well pleased.” People heard this, and yet, Jesus still had to prove who He is. As Mark continued in chapter one, Jesus called four men to follow Him and taught in the Capernaum synagogue with power and authority. He healed Simon’s mother-in-law and the leper. Jesus cast out demons. He told the four men He must go to more villages, because He came for all people. Each of these, Jesus did to give freedom from human maladies and, thus, prove He can free people from sin and death.
With Mark chapter two, Jesus encountered opposition. At first, He faced silent opposition, but He knew what was in the hearts and minds of the people who watched and listened to Him. When Jesus healed the paralyzed man, the scribes internally challenged Him about who can forgive sins except God alone. Jesus proved continually He is the Son of Man, like He stated. He affirmed He came to eat with sinners. To the Pharisees, Jesus said He came to those who are sick, not to those who are well. He taught that religious ritual is not what He seeks, but those whose lives have been transformed. New life in Christ should not be a new patch of cloth on an old life, Jesus taught, but be a completely new cloth a saved person wears. New Life in Jesus should be His pouring of the Holy Spirit into new wineskin. Religious ritual should not forbid what the Lord allows, like fasting when the Bridegroom is with the disciples. After this, Mark relayed a story from Jesus’ ministry of the Pharisees challenging Him about His disciples working—plucking grain heads—on the Sabbath. Jesus explained He is Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not lord of Him, nor of any person. The purpose of the sabbath day is to focus on God and serve Him. Sometimes serving God means serving people. Sabbath day rituals should not forbid helping someone who has a need, like hunger, illness, homelessness, etc. God permits good. He is good, always. As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus taught meeting human needs is paramount over the sabbath day laws. By saying and proving with authority He is Lord of the Sabbath, for any learned religious leader, that would have meant He is the Son of Man—the Messiah. Son of Man refers to Daniel 7:13-14. Jesus said, using this title, He has all dominion, authority, glory, and power over all created things. Jesus has authority to forgive sins, heal, cast out demons, and teach. He is Lord of all. The Jews should have realized Jesus, as the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath.
The Setting
He (Jesus) entered a synagogue again and a man was there whose hand was withered. (Mark 3:1 [NASB])
In the six verses of this story, the readers and hearers learn three things. These things are as follows. Jesus healed a man. He taught what is right and good to do on the sabbath day. The Pharisees and their followers had hard hearts. These religious leaders wanted to hurt or kill Jesus.
Mark jumps immediately into this story from Jesus’ ministry with no preamble. He disclosed the setting. In a synagogue, Jesus noticed a man who had a withered (shriveled) hand. Why was a withered hand a big issue? The man’s predicament was a big problem for him. Jesus wanted to help the man, and by it, prove further that He is the Son of Man, the Messiah.
Jesus, as a good Jew and the Son of God (Son of Man), walked to the synagogue. Up to this time, most Jews did not recognize Him as the Messiah. Jesus continued teaching and performing miracles. Some people believed in Him. Jesus did more than go to the synagogue. He entered there with a purpose. Like most Jews, He went to the synagogue because it was religious practice to worship God together. It was part of the laws God gave—to focus on and worship Him only. Jesus explained in Mark 2 that God set aside the Sabbath to focus on and serve Him. In the Old Testament, God told His people to come together on the sabbath day in His tabernacle/synagogue/temple. Jesus obeyed these spiritual laws. He entered the synagogue with the purpose of joining other Jews to worship and focus on Yahweh.
Jesus entered to the synagogue for a second purpose, too. He knew a certain man who needed Him would be there. Jesus realized this man with the withered hand. He expected the religious leaders would be in the synagogue. Jesus discerned this would be a prime time to teach the Pharisees, scribes, rabbis and the attending Jews again about who He is. Jesus did not come to earth just for one group of people. He came for all people. The synagogue was the place to meet a mixture of Jewish people.
Did the Pharisees set up this meeting by making sure the man with the withered hand was in the synagogue? Mark does not say this. The man with the withered hand, as an observant Jew, probably went to the synagogue out of faithfulness to God. What we know, from the first two chapters of Mark’s Gospel, is the Pharisees and other religious leaders wanted to trap Jesus into breaking any religious laws. They had attempted to trap Jesus when His disciples plucked heads of grain while following Jesus on the sabbath day. At that time, Jesus told the religious leaders He was not made for the Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath. He taught the sabbath laws were subordinate to the needs of humanity, like the disciples’ hunger. Moral laws were more important than ceremonial laws.
What would this mean for Jesus’ appointment with the man with the withered hand? Would Jesus do something else the laws forbade? Can you hear the pin drop in the synagogue? Can you see the Pharisees holding their breath as they waited for Jesus to say or do something they considered unlawful?
The Sly
And they (Pharisees) were watching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. (Mark 3:2 [NASB])
Mark explained what the Pharisees did in their hope of catching Jesus doing “wrong,” according to them. They watched Jesus with evil intentions. These men secretly hoped to remove Jesus’ allure for His followers. They sneakily and purposefully watched Jesus so they might harm Him. They resolved to harm Jesus if He continued to proclaim Himself the Son of Man, gain followers, and usurp their role and authority over the Israelites. These religious leaders did not care about the Jewish man’s useless hand. They did not have the concerns of God for the impoverished and the hurting people in their country. The Pharisees sought their own desires.
The Pharisees, put in their positions by God’s decree as declared by Moses, legally could accuse someone of breaking religious laws. They watched every little thing Jesus did. The Pharisees dissected everything Jesus said because they wanted to accuse Him of breaking their sacred-to-them laws. They had little concern for the people. The religious leaders’ intentions were to highlight other people’s sins. With Jesus in the picture and considering what He was doing and saying, the Pharisees scrupulously watched Him. Their focus was not on God, even on that Sabbath day. The Pharisees’ focus was not on the physically challenged man. To them, this man’s hand was not a life-or-death emergency and should not be dealt with on the sabbath day. They had enacted a law allowing a doctor to work on a sabbath day if the patient was in a life-or-death situation. This occurrence was not that.
The Command
He (Jesus) said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” (Mark 3:3 [NASB])
Jesus acknowledged this particular man in the synagogue. He focused His attention on him. Jesus commanded the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!”
This may have been an unusual command for the man. According to Jewish teaching, a person who was sick, physically or mentally challenged, or demon-possessed was a sinner and unclean. This man was unclean to the Jews and should not have been in the synagogue. Because of this, he might have wanted to go unnoticed. This man wanted to worship God with his brothers on the sabbath day in the synagogue. He wanted to be with the community. (Notice the Pharisees did not attack the man for being in the synagogue.) Jesus did not speak about the man’s supposed uncleanliness and unworthiness to be in the synagogue. He recognized the man needed Him. Jesus spoke to the man about the area of his need. This man needed healing.
Why was this man’s plight something Jesus needed to discuss? First, a person with a useless hand could not do manual labor. Most people of that time worked with their hands. This means this man would have had a hard time providing for his family and taking care of himself. This man might have faced ostracism by the religious leaders. These leaders may have challenged him to give up his sins so God would heal him.
In a later meeting, the Pharisees would challenge Jesus about a blind man by asking who sinned, the man or his parents. Jesus told the Pharisees then, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:1-4). Why was this man’s problem something Jesus needed to discuss? Jesus addressed it because the man needed healing and other people needed to see the works of God displayed. By seeing Him heal the man, He hoped people would come to believe in Him for salvation. By healing the man, in the minds of the Jews, it meant Jesus forgave the man’s sins. Jesus rescued this man from abject poverty and ostracism, and would forgive his sins.
One other thing to note, no one questioned if Jesus could heal the man. They did not say they did not trust Jesus could heal him. Does this mean people began to accept He could heal others? Were some beginning to believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah? God arranged this appointment so the people could see His works displayed through Jesus in this man, then acknowledge and profess Jesus is the Messiah. At the right time, the Son came forth. He made Himself known. In Mark’s words, in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The Lesson
And He (Jesus) said to them (Pharisees), “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. (Mark 3:4 [NASB])
Jesus directed His question to the Pharisees. They are the makers and keepers of the laws. Overtime, the Pharisees wrote 633 laws to explain what the Jews could and could not do to stay right with God. These same laws, written to help the Jews not sin (as if sinful humanity could succeed at it in their own power), ended by showcasing the religious leaders’ “goodness” to have the Israelites look up to them. The laws resulted in keeping the people’s focus on themselves and not on God, which was not the purpose of God’s laws.
Jesus directed His question to the Pharisees. He asked, what makes someone or something good? Jesus' exact question was, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” If the Pharisees defined goodness as obedience to the laws, they could have told Jesus that healing on the Sabbath was not good. Yet, from their studies and understanding, they realized goodness comes from and is defined by Yahweh. He is the fount of goodness and determines what is good. So, the Pharisees were trapped with their definition of “goodness.” They had to admit goodness is always permissible.
Of course, the Pharisees would say doing good is lawful. Doing good is always lawful. Jesus asked the implied question behind the original question. “Is it lawful to do evil?” To say it another way, “Is not doing good unlawful/sinful?” Had the Pharisees considered it that way before, that not doing the good you should do is evil and sinful? If they answered Jesus by saying doing good on the Sabbath is lawful, then they would have to explain why Jesus was not allowed by law to heal the man with the withered hand. Wouldn’t Yahweh, who they served, have agreed with them? Yet, if they did not agree with Jesus, then they would not be doing good and so would be sinful.
Thinking further about this, would this mean, for the Pharisees and each Jew, that sabbath day laws had to be set aside to do good whenever doing good was necessary? By agreeing that need known about on the sabbath day must be taken care of, the Jews would end up “working,” by the definition of the religious leaders. But if they did not do good, they did not help; they harmed and were ungodly. A complex question for highly educated people who wanted to appear godly.
Jesus, in this verse, was not asking only about the physical health of the man or of any person. He used the Greek word “sozo,” which means to rescue or deliver out of danger into safety. Bible writers used this word most often to speak about God rescuing from eternal condemnation any person who believes in Jesus as the Son of God and their Savior because of God’s grace. This rescue is from destruction. That destruction is eternal separation from God after physical death. Jesus spoke about physical rescuing to figuratively point to spiritual rescuing.
Jesus rescued this man with the withered hand from poverty by healing him. He rescued the paralyzed man (Mark 2:1-12). Jesus delivered Simon’s mother-in-law from sickness (Mark 1:30-31). He delivered the people possessed by demons (Mark 1:24-26, & 34). Jesus did these things because it was good, because God’s will is to free people from what binds them. He came to earth to free people from the sins that bind them and will lead them from eternal separation from God. Had Jesus not healed this man or helped any person, He would not have done good, but evil. But Jesus is innately good. He will not do evil. No darkness can be where light exists. Jesus knows the Father’s heart because He is Himself part of the Godhead. He knows the purposes of God to deliver and do good for each person.
The Pharisees recognized they had backed themselves into a corner. They understood what was more important. They understood God gave His laws so people could know Him and focus on Him. People, His creation, are important to God. Yet, the manmade laws the religious leaders had created had become more important to them than God or His purposes. These leaders had hard hearts. They did not want to lose their battle, the one between their importance and God’s will to save people. The Pharisees made themselves to be a god by doing this.
Mark recorded in this verse, the Pharisees kept silent. With their silence, they admitted they did evil and were not good. Either a person is doing good or not. No fence-sitting exists. If one chooses not to do what is right, then that person does what is sinful. By Jesus asking the Pharisees this question, these religious leaders realized they had condemned themselves by their silence and actions. Their silence was deafening after Jesus’ question in verse four. The Pharisees' silence affirmed the goodness of Jesus’ teaching and led more Jews to follow Him. Their recognition of their sins and their jealousy of Jesus would lead them to kill Jesus as soon as possible. The religious leaders actively sought to kill Jesus.
Notice, Mark did not record speaking by any other Jews in the synagogue after Jesus asked this question of the Pharisees. Was this because they did not want the wrath of the Pharisees on themselves? Was it because they agreed with the Pharisees but were afraid to say it aloud so Jesus would know their hearts, too? A third reason the people might have stayed silent is that they were processing this interchange between Jesus and the Pharisees to decide if they believed Jesus is the Son of Man, the Messiah.
The Rescue
After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He (Jesus) said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. (Mark 3:5 [NASB])
Imagine the look on a parent’s face when a child deliberately disobeys him or her by taking another child’s toy. The look of disappointment mixed with grief and with anger rising from the frustration. The emotions people have come as part of God creating humanity in His image. Our disappointment with our child, sibling, spouse, parent, etc. is like His with us when we disobey Him. A standard we set in our minds that another person knew about and broke because of his or her willfulness of that person can cause this anger and grief. Our sinfulness comes from breaking the godly standard God has for the world. God enables Christians to achieve godliness through His indwelling Holy Spirit. Before a person believes in Jesus, that person has God’s “coding” because of being made in His image. That “coding” is each person’s conscience that God gives him or her. Everyone knows what is right/godly to do. Going against the conscience given to each person is sinning. Sinning is disobeying God and rebelliousness.
Each of us has experienced the disappointment and grief over our own or someone else’s sin. We may have become angry because of it. Our anger differs from God’s anger. Our anger comes from our inner being because we or another person crossed a boundary--sinned. Sometimes that boundary is imposed by us and sometimes by God. (Not every boundary a person creates is godly.) Anger at a person for crossing our personal boundaries/morals is different from God’s anger. God’s anger, as taught in the Bible, comes from His righteousness and His care for our relationship with Him. Human anger most often comes from our sense of being offended or dismissed as unimportant. The source and intention behind the anger of God and a person differ. Jesus’ anger came from His grief over the Pharisees stubbornly choosing to hold on to their self-righteous intentions. Human anger comes from offense taken. Jesus’ reasoning with and rhetorically discussing good, evil, harm, and help did not make the Pharisees change their minds.
Jesus hoped the Pharisees would see Him as an example of godliness. He hoped they would become like Him and be an example of godliness for the Israelites by focusing on God and not on personal intentions. Because the Pharisees refused to trust in Jesus and to accept the superseding moral good of helping someone over the human-imposed rule of sabbath rest, Jesus was angry. The Pharisees would continue to lead the Israelites away from God with their religious rituals instead of toward Him. Their innermost intentions of having followers and being better than everyone else kept them from conceding Jesus’ truth, goodness, and better way.
Jesus had a second agenda for His meeting with the man. He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched out his hand and found it restored, like God intended. Jesus commanded with authority when He spoke to the man. He taught with authority when He spoke to the Pharisees and tried to reason with them. This man with the withered hand recognized Jesus’ authority, based on His teaching and the authority in His voice. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain by admitting Jesus could do what he had heard Jesus had done. The man stretched out his hand toward Jesus in hope. With this meager belief and hope in Jesus, this restored man’s faith, hope, and belief grew. His one step toward Jesus strengthened him spiritually and renewed him physically.
Jesus restored the man’s hand. The action started and completed at that time. Jesus did His miracle specifically for this man. He did not partially heal his hand. Jesus did the action. The receiver of the action was the man. Jesus restored the man for the Pharisees, too, so they would accept and receive what He said and who He is. The Pharisees refused to accept Jesus and believe in Him. Jesus’ salvation for each person begins when the person believes in Him and continues until each believer arrives in heaven on resurrection day.
The Rejection
The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might put Him to death. (Mark 3:6 [NASB])
The Pharisees had to take a stand on one side of the fence or the other. They had to decide if their sabbath day laws were more important than anything or anyone else. If they said healing the man on the sabbath day was good, then their laws about not working would forever be broken. The people would not look up to them as much anymore. If they said the healing on a sabbath was evil, then again the people might not consider them authorities anymore since all good is permissible. But, if they agreed with Jesus, more people would follow Him and they, the intermediaries between the people and God, would be redundant. Their income and stature would decrease, they figured. Instead of choosing one or the other, they kept quiet. The Pharisees left and sought their enemies, the Herodians, to conspire with them for a mutual goal.
Herodians were people who supported Herod and the Roman rule of the Jews. The Herods in Israel during New Testament times were descended from the Edomites south of Judah. They came from Idumea. The people in Idumea converted to Judaism by force in the four-hundred-year period between the Old and New Testaments. The Romans chose them to rule the territories of old Israel and Judah because they were faithful to the Roman Empire. According to the Jews, the Messiah would take the throne and return the rule of the nation to the Israelites. The Herodians did not want to lose their power in the land.
The Pharisees left to conspire with the Herodians because they had much to lose if Jesus was the Messiah or if He caused rioting in the province. If the Herodian rulers did not keep the peace for which Rome was famous, then the Roman army would remove, by force, the troublemakers and restore peace. The Roman supervisors of the Herods might remove them from their throne as governors of the provinces. For each of their reasons, the Pharisees and Herodians did not want Jesus to be the Messiah and rise to power. The Pharisees chose to get the help of their enemies to defeat their other enemy.
The Pharisees did not intend to focus on God. Their laws did not keep their fears and selfish intentions in check. The religious leaders firstly sought what they considered was for their own good. God was not preeminent in their lives. They, too, were sinners who needed a Savior, but they refused to admit it.
Application and Conclusion
The Pharisees harbored malicious thoughts about Jesus. They were jealous and afraid of losing power, stature, and income. In their effort to keep their desired status quo, they condoned evil by not agreeing a man with a withered hand should receive help on the sabbath day. God was not their focus. He was not central to them in word, action, or thought. By making the Pharisees choose to help or harm, it may have seemed to them that Jesus caused them to sin. Before that point, they could justify not helping the man as keeping the sabbath day laws, which were merely religious ritual.
What are the points in Mark 3:1-6 of Jesus’ ministry? Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Doing good on the Sabbath and any day is always right. The Pharisees had hard hearts; do not be like them. Instead, choose what is good. Good is always permissible. Focusing on God on the sabbath day will lead a person to serve Him by serving people in need.
This encounter with Jesus was not the only one where they felt challenged by Him. He challenged the Pharisees in the grain field as His disciples plucked grain from heads to eat as they walked (Mark 2:23-28). Jesus spoke with them when they asked why His disciples did not fast like they themselves did (Mark 2:18-22). He spoke to the scribes when they asked why He and His disciples ate with sinners and tax collectors (Mark 2:13-17). Jesus showed He knew what they thought when He healed the paralyzed man lowered through the roof (Mark 2:1-12).
A person is not the same after meeting with Jesus, even today. He teaches people even today. A person can choose to change his or her life to live according to Jesus’ teaching or the person can choose not to change. Disobeying, ignoring, or obeying a lesson or command are choices that arise when a person encounters Jesus.
Each person is like the Pharisees. We each want to live our own ways and make something or someone preeminent in our lives. Some of us choose to believe in Jesus for salvation and follow Him. Jesus offers salvation to each person freely by God’s grace through that person’s faith in Him as the Son of God, the Savior. Jesus paid the price for our sins. He died in our place.
Each of us gets to choose how we respond to Jesus. Will we cheer and be excited to believe in Him or will we turn away in silence? In earlier miracles, Mark recorded the people were amazed. They excitedly told other people about Jesus. The people in this last story from Jesus’ ministry were silent: silent because of resentment and brooding, silent because of thoughtfulness, or silent in amazement at seeing the Pharisees challenged and defeated. We each get to choose how we react to hearing from Jesus. Will it cause us to focus on God and obey Him? Or will we turn away from Him and focus on self?
Jesus said to them (us), “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4 [NASB])
Rescuing lives is
Jesus’ purpose
Doing good is
permissible, always.
Believing in Jesus
and obeying Him is always good and permissible.
