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And, suiting the action to the word, the Lord commands the man with the withered
hand to stretch it forth.
In contrast with this beneficent act, the Pharisees hold a council "how they might
destroy Him". And so the enmity that bore the bitter fruit of the cross was sown in the
soil of a perverted sabbatarianism.
It is no accident that the man's hand was "withered". The word is used again in
Matt. 13: 6 and 21: 19, 20. The Pharisees' whole conception of the law was dry and
withered. They had never learned the "meaning" of the words: "I will have mercy, and
not sacrifice" (Matt. 12: 7).
In view of the Jews' attitude towards the sabbath day, there may have been more in
the Lord's question to the impotent man than at first appears. The words "Wilt thou be
made whole?" may have implied the unspoken thought, Wilt thou be made whole on the
sabbath, with all that it may bring with it? The command to the man to take up his bed
and walk was a further example of the Lord's dominion over the sabbath, and His
disregard for the scruples of the Pharisees. According to their traditions:
"Whoever on the sabbath carries out anything either from a private place to a public,
or from a public place to a private, he is bound to offer a sacrifice for his sin, but if
presumptuously, he is punished by cutting off, and being stoned" (Schabb).
We must give fuller consideration to the corresponding sabbath day controversy in
John 9: when we come to the sign of the healing of the man born blind. Sufficient, we
trust, has been said to enable the reader to understand the great difference between the
Divine intention of the sabbath as taught by the Lord in word and deed, and the barren,
lifeless, merciless imposition of the tradition of the elders. This exclusive, withered,
merciless sabbatarian spirit still lingers among some Christians even to-day. Such
believers no doubt mean well, but they have never entered into the spirit of Him Who is
Lord even of the sabbath.
Time will not permit us to deal here with Paul's attitude towards the observance of
"days" and "sabbaths". We must be content with the suggestion that the reader should
study for himself, as a supplement to the present article, the Apostle's words in
Rom. 14:, Gal. 4:, and Col. 2: