Mark 3:1-6--A Man with a Withered Hand

Mark 3:1-6
English Standard Version
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A Man with a Withered Hand
3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with 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 Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

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This is a set-up whether "they," the Pharisees, invited the man with the withered hand to the synagogue because they knew Jesus would be there, or they invited Jesus because they knew the man would be there, or they just had knowledge that both would be there and they decided to come and watch and see what would happen, the Pharisees were there to see if Jesus was going to heal this man on the Sabbath day, because in their mind this would be worthy of the death penalty.

Jesus knows exactly what is going on and calls the man with the withered hand to come front and center where everyone can see what is happening.  Everyone that is there that day will be a witness to what was said and done.  It will not be done in secret.  Then He turned to the Pharisees and asked them a question in front of everyone else that trapped them.  He asked them if it was lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath?  Was it good to save a life or to take a life?  The implication here is that doing nothing when you have the ability to do good is to do evil.  To not heal is to injure and to not save is to kill.  They knew this already though which is why they sat there silent and would not answer for this question now put them in the very trap they had set for Jesus.  Now if He didn't heal the man, He was sinning, and they were more concerned with killing Jesus on that Sabbath day than seeing this man healed.

When they would not answer, Jesus was angry and grieved in His spirit because of their hard hearts.  Then He commanded the man to stretch out his hand (notice He doesn't touch the man or have the man touch Him)--He just has the man show everyone that his withered hand has been healed.  We imagine that the healing took place as he stretched out his hand, but Jesus could have already healed the man and the man simply showed all of them that he was already healed.  I'd like to think that the healing happened right in front of them and they missed it because they were watching Jesus waiting for Him to touch the man and He never did.

The Pharisees then went out angry and decided to conspire with the Herodians (Jews that were loyal to Herod, and Edomite that the Romans put in place to rule over the Jews).  This is the beginning of the conspiracy between the Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities to kill Jesus.  Typically the Pharisees and the Herodians were enemies for the Pharisees hated the Roman occupation and rule, but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."