Luke 6:6-7
On another sabbath, when He entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, to see whether He would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him.
If we are determined to condemn, we can find anything and everything is evidence for the prosecution. The Pharisees who hated Jesus had worked themselves into just a such a state. Seeing was no longer believing because they were no longer seeing. They had screwed their eyes down into a squint which allowed in only enough light to help them see their own bigotries. A miraculous healing on the Sabbath was for them, not a miracle, but a sin because it violated their little rulebook. It was a seemingly astonishing instance of majoring in minors — till we think about the times we major in similar minors and recognize something of the Pharisee in ourselves. The cure is to allow ourselves to see again in God’s light rather than squint in our self-justifications. It can be blinding at first, as St. Paul discovered, but it is the only path to sanity, truth, and love.
