Mindless Virtue

There are worse things than physical handicaps, deformities, and pain. Those are bad. It is frustrating to have daily limitations on activities and difficulties doing what is normal for most people. Depending on the problem, there can also be social stigma, isolation, and even judgment by others.

In Luke 6:6-11 Jesus addressed a man with a “withered hand” that was useless, perhaps ugly. And this man did not have the biggest problem in the room. The scribes and Pharisees had the worse deformity. Their souls were withered.

We’ve been following Luke’s series of so-called controversy stories. This will be the fifth and final controversy in this part of the book during the early days of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is revealing His identity and authority, making disciples and enemies. The disciples are listed in the following passage, the enemies are filled with fury at the end of this paragraph.

This event combines the kind of healing that only God could do (which we saw with the leper and paralytic man in chapter 5), and the kind of “work” on the Sabbath that provoked the rule keepers (which we saw first in chapter 6). Jesus goes out of His way to “do good” that is not received well.

Here’s the point: The Lord of the Sabbath restores withered hands and exposes withered hearts. There is a kind of virtue that withers the soul, and seeing good works makes them more accountable.

The religious powers wanted Jesus to mess up. They were interested in getting Him to do a thing that they could condemn. The key motivation is so that they might find a reason to accuse him (verse 7).

For some time Jesus has been traveling around Galilee with a growing number of followers, though not all of them were excited about His work. Perhaps a delegation has been sent from Jerusalem to investigate. Now at least some of them are trying to instigate. They want to trap Jesus breaking the law.

Jesus was following His practice of teaching in a synagogue, and the Sabbath services enabled this group setting. In the synagogue was a man...whose right hand was withered. What were the symptoms and what was the cause? We’re told neither, but we can reasonably assume that it was visibly deformed and practically useless. If most people are right-handed, then the condition of this man’s dominant hand made everything more difficult.

The word translated watched “means to spy on or watch out of the corner of one’s eye, which adds a sinister note” (Bock). Maybe the Pharisees made sure to get this handicapped guy in front of Jesus, or maybe his presence was convenient as a pretext, a reason to accuse Jesus.

And don’t miss the assumption: The scribes and Pharisees assumed Jesus would use His healing powers to heal the man. How dare He! They believed that He had the power, but they did want Jesus to use His (divine) power at the wrong time. No one actually seems to see the man, except for Jesus.

From the Pharisees’ perspective, the sick could wait a day. The crippled, where were they going to go anyway?

The Mosaic Law prohibited all work on the Sabbath, though later rabbinic writings allowed for life-saving effort on the Sabbath. Even the Pharisees’ codes allowed for midwives to be called to help deliver a baby. But a withered hand could wait another day. They wanted a miracle in order to “accuse” him of breaking the Sabbath, a violation punishable by death (Exodus 31:14-15).

In the previous paragraph, when Jesus and His disciples were in the grain field, we had to wonder whether or not Jesus had everyone eat because the Pharisees were watching. Here we know that Jesus knows. He knew that they were watching, that they wanted to trap Him. He knew that their souls were withered. So He brought the man to center stage, so to speak.

”Come and stand here.”

Did Jesus finish His teaching first? Did He get through all the points He planned to deliver? Did He stop in the middle of a parable or a great OT exposition that now we’ll never know?

We do know that He knew their thoughts. With full awareness Jesus gets everyone’s attention for another point.

Before tending to the withered hand Jesus makes it a teachable moment. Really, it may be more accurately called an accountability moment. They asked Him about what was lawful (Luke 6:2), now He asks them.

He asks a question that should have been a wake-up call to the accusers. The question reflected their priorities like a mirror. The answer was obvious, unless your heart was withered.

“I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9)

The first level applies to the healing of the man, the second level applies to the hate toward Jesus.

Healing the physical handicap was good. While the man wasn’t bleeding out, the inability to use his dominant hand likely kept him from making much of a living. If it had been from an injury, even an injury on the job, what could he do now? Restoring the hand meant restoring his vocation.

The word save in verse 9 is the same word Luke uses in Luke 19:10, where the Son of Man came to seek and save. Healing this man’s hand isn’t the same as giving him eternal life, but it is a picture of the Son of Man’s work even if not the whole of it. The man went home able to hold his head up, and maybe his kid's hand.

Jesus leaves no doubt. He made sure to look around at all of them, and then He said, ”Stretch out your hand.” The man did, and he was healed. Which, would be hard to accuse Jesus of "working" when all He did was say a word.

There is no indication that their hearts softened, no movement toward self-awareness. They preferred the broken man stay broken so that they could keep their .

The scribes and Pharisees were more mad now than they were at the beginning. Jesus had done what they wanted, but in a way that mocked their hard hearts. This is their answer to Jesus' question: on the Sabbath, they chose to destroy.

They were filled with fury. The key word is ἀνοίας (anoias) so “without understanding,” senseless or even senseless rage. It was irrational, so “filled with madness” (KJV). They lost their minds. They were not only not happy about the healing, they were hot. So they began planning what they could do to Jesus. They were wanting to do harm, to destroy Jesus’ life.

They thought their position was virtuous. But it was mindless virtue.

They didn’t have the guts yet to do more to stop Jesus. It would be a few more years before they could get enough momentum to murder Him. But the fury was early.

By way of application, a few layers.

First, virtue has killed many men (and women). Not true virtue, but self-sure virtue. Why would you repent from what you think is your virtue? You might second-guess a choice made out of weakness, but you double down on choices out of your perceived strengths.

This week, you could ask someone who knows you well: Where do I dig in deepest when I'm sure I'm right?

The “virtuous” used God’s law to attack God Himself in the flesh. The virtuous were blinded and burdened and obsessed by commitment to (bogus) righteousness.

Second, when others are irritated by the good we do, we usually take that as a total failure. But it is successfully increasing their accountability before God. When they oppose, and we don’t freak out, it's a sign of their destruction (Philippians 1:28). That still doesn't make it fun. Jesus looked around them with anger and was grieved at their hardness of heart (Mark 3:5). That said, their accountability was greater for what they had seen.

Third, as is Luke’s purpose in writing all of this record, Jesus is more than an inspirational figure, good teacher, nice guy. He knows thoughts. He sees withered hearts as well as withered hands.

Maybe you're broken like the man with the withered hand, or maybe you're watching out of the corner of your eye just to see who will mess up. The need is the same for both: come stand with Jesus.

You are the LIGHT of the world. Keep your conduct excellent, even if it gets you slandered as intolerant, judgmental, foolish or worse. Let them see your GOOD WORKS. Pray that God would let them see Him through you. Bless God when He uses you to make them more accountable to Him.

If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. (1 Corinthians 16:22–23 ESV)