What sort of person, who believed that healing miracles were possible, would stand judgment on the healer? The same sort of person who believed that their way was right and that the way of others was wrong. It is possible to believe in God, to believe that God's power was present and available to do good, and yet to belittle the way in which that power was used. "If it is not done my way, then it is wrong." Those people were in attendance at worship at the synagogue.

People like these Pharisees may be present at any time, passing judgment on what others do. Congregations can be divided by members who judge other peoples' spirituality, or way of worshipping. One size doesn't fit all. There are many ways of worshipping and doing God's work. There are many skeptics who criticize the way Christians sing, or pray, or preach. It is easy to poke fun at church services and preachers in novels, on television, and in the movies. It is done all the time. Screen writers, novelists, and commentators are looking for reasons to accuse believers of insincerity, so they watch us closely when we gather together. But they don't know what to do when people are healed and their lives are changed. It is hard for them to take it seriously because they come with a critical attitude. They automatically assume that there is some trick to it, some ulterior motive, some sleight of hand, or some way they can expose the charlatan involved. "It won't last," they say. "It's all show." "It isn't dignified." If it doesn't convey some benefit to them they don't want it to happen.

So Jesus decides to teach them a lesson. He notices a man with a shriveled hand in the congregation, "Stand up in front of everyone." Most of Jesus healing miracles are done in private and the healed person is urged not to tell anyone about it. In this case Jesus is making a public statement. He is not demonstrating his power to prove his identity as Messiah, instead he is confronting the Pharisees. He asks them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" He puts them on trial. The tables are turned.

There is only one possible answer to his question. It is always lawful to do good and to save life, on the Sabbath, or any other day. But they were not in the business of doing good or saving life. They were in the business of passing judgment, of observing what others did, and not participating themselves. They were back-seat drivers in life. They were arm-chair athletes. They never got their hands dirty. They preferred to be couch potatoes. So they remained silent. They had nothing to say to Jesus. On the Day of Judgment they will also remain silent. They will be struck dumb because they will not be able to answer the question he puts to them.

Theodore Roosevelt once said.

"It is not the critic who counts - not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause...who, at the least knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

"Jesus looked around at them in anger, and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.'"

In the face of their stubborn hearts, Jesus is angry and deeply distressed. The stubborn heart is impervious to doing good or saving life. It resists the grace and the love of God. It is calloused to any spiritual truth. It stands in the presence of God incarnate and is not moved or affected by what he does to restore a man's hand to usefulness. Nothing Jesus can say or do will pierce the thick armor of moral insensitivity that encases these men's minds. Their only reaction is to do the opposite of Jesus: to do evil and to kill. They began to plot with the ruling party how they might kill Jesus, the healer. It seems as though the very presence of the light of the world brings out the worst in people. They run from the light and want to extinguish it so that they can live in darkness.

These Pharisees had shriveled souls. Their capacity for truth and love had atrophied. On the surface they appeared to have it all together, but their hearts were shriveled up.

Jesus was angry and deeply distressed by their shriveled souls. In Matthew 23 he pronounced seven woes on the Pharisees. He said that they were all talk and no action. He condemned them for their desire for praise, for substituting their own ideas for God's, for their false priorities, their cynicism, their formalistic worship, their intolerance of others, their breaking of their commitments, their materialism, their unreliability, their love of their own comfort, their lack of concern for others, their emphasis on external appearance rather than substance, on preserving the past rather than affecting the present. "Jesus did not leave his disciples to be keepers of aquaria, but fishers of men and women. The trouble is that so many churches are rafts to which people cling for safety in the rough seas of life, not trawlers to catch people for Christ. Such churches are into maintenance, not mission." (Michael Green)

In his anger and distress Jesus showed what he could do - he healed the man with the shriveled hand. His hand was completely restored. Jesus can completely restore the shriveled soul. He can take the Pharisee, the stubborn of heart, the critic, and restore him completely. But it requires risking, being willing to respond to Jesus's invitation: "Stretch out your hand." It requires a public profession, being willing to "Stand up in front of everyone." It requires making a choice, being willing to answer when Jesus questions us, "Do you want to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" The answer seems obvious, yet many avoid responding, they don't want to take sides, they prefer to drift, and they end up doing nothing. They live shriveled lives. They need to be completely restored.

End