Healing of the Man with a Withered Hand

Biblical Text and Content

This miracle is recorded in Matthew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6, and Luke 6:6-11. All three Gospels place the account immediately after the controversy that arose when the disciples plucked ears of grain on the Sabbath.

When Jesus entered a synagogue on the Sabbath, a man was there whose hand was withered. People watched to see whether Jesus would heal on the Sabbath, looking for grounds to accuse him. In Mark's account, Jesus has the man stand in the midst and asks whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill. When they hold their peace, Jesus looks around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts. He then says to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand," and when the man stretches it out, his hand is restored. Afterward the Pharisees take counsel with the Herodians about how they might destroy him (Mark 3:6).

The three accounts differ slightly in detail.

• Matthew: The people first ask whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus responds by asking whether any of them would not lift a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath, and he declares that a man is of more value than a sheep.
• Mark: Mark records Jesus' anger and grief. The Herodians' participation in the plot appears only in Mark.
• Luke: Luke notes that the withered hand was the man's "right hand." He also identifies the opponents as the scribes and Pharisees, and writes that they were filled with madness and communed with one another.

Background

The Greek word translated "withered" means "dried up" or "shriveled." The Gospels do not name the condition. Some have suggested paralysis or muscular atrophy, but the matter cannot be determined with certainty.

Within the Judaism of the time there were various views on how much work was permitted on the Sabbath. The principle that saving a life takes precedence over Sabbath regulations when life is in danger is recorded in the Mishnah, a later rabbinic text. Because a withered hand was not a life-threatening condition, those holding a strict position could regard its treatment as something that could be postponed to another day. Among the documents of the Qumran community is a regulation reportedly forbidding anyone to lift an animal out of a pit on the Sabbath. This indicates that Matthew's illustration of the sheep reflected a genuine point of debate at the time.

Significance within Scripture

In Mark, this event is the last in the series of controversy stories that begins in chapter 2. It is also the first passage to mention a plot to kill Jesus. It is read as an enactment of the saying that immediately precedes it, "The sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27-28). Commentators also frequently note that Jesus healed by word alone, without touching the man; he saved life without performing any "work" that could serve as grounds for accusation. Matthew follows the account by quoting Isaiah 42, presenting Jesus as the servant who will not break a bruised reed (Matthew 12:15-21).

Interpretation and Issues

• Understanding of the Sabbath: Protestant denominations generally read this passage as showing Jesus restoring the original meaning of the Sabbath. The Westminster Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian tradition holds that works of necessity and mercy are permitted on the Lord's Day, and this passage is often cited in support. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, which keeps a Saturday Sabbath, cites the passage as evidence that Jesus did not abolish the Sabbath but showed how to keep it rightly. For further detail, see the article Sabbath and Lord's Day.
• Faith and obedience: Sermons often interpret the man's stretching out of his withered hand as an act of the obedience of faith. The text, however, does not mention the man's faith, nor does it say that he asked to be healed.
• Later traditions: A fragment of an apocryphal gospel quoted by Jerome reportedly states that the man was a mason (a stoneworker) and that he asked to be healed so that he would not have to beg. This story does not appear in the canonical Gospels.

In the Korean Church

The words "Stretch forth thine hand" are frequently used as a sermon title and text. The passage is also cited in teaching on keeping the Lord's Day holy and on what may be done on the Lord's Day.