Col 1:24-2:3 / Lk 6:6-11
Imagine a man living all his life with a withered hand. People stared at him, his playmates gave him a cruel nickname, and there were all sorts of things he just couldn’t do. And then suddenly, after a lifetime of that, he was made whole — in an instant.
Now what would be the normal, healthy reaction to seeing that happen? Wouldn’t it be delight? Of course! But that’s not what happened in today’s gospel. The Pharisees flew into a frenzy because the healing took place on the sabbath. It was a violation of the commandment: keep holy the Lord’s day.
Jesus tried to wake them up by asking, "Is it lawful to do a good deed on the Lord’s day?" Now we’d assume there’s no better time, no better way to keep the day holy. But those Pharisees just didn’t get it. Instead, they launched a conspiracy to get Jesus.
It was a case of total blindness: they couldn’t see that their actions made no sense. And they couldn’t see their own motives, which were plain enough to everyone else.
Blindness like that isn’t rare. We see it in various forms all around us. And that should raise some questions about ourselves: What am I not seeing? Are some of my motivations distorted or self-serving? Am I closing my eyes to circumstances in which I habitually do harm? What faults am I hiding under layers of denial?
Those are hard questions, but we all need to ask them fearlessly. We can do that, even in the worst of cases, because we know that Lord who healed the man with the withered hand can heal us too. And he will, if only we name what needs his healing, and give it to him, and don’t take it back.
