The Heart Behind The Healing

"After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”
Mark 3:5

Two powerful emotions filled Jesus' heart in that synagogue: anger and grief. He was angry at the Pharisees' callous disregard for human suffering, but grieved by their spiritual blindness.  

This wasn't the cold fury of wounded pride, this was the righteous indignation of perfect love confronting religious hypocrisy. 

Jesus felt both emotions simultaneously because the Pharisees were rejecting two people that day: the man with the withered hand and the Messiah Himself.  

Their apathy toward human need angered Him. Their rejection of Him as Savior grieved Him. 

The Pharisees had turned God's gift of the Sabbath into a burden.  

What was meant to be a day of rest and restoration had become a day of oppressive rules and regulations.  

They had forgotten that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

Even today, people get so wrapped up in protecting their traditions that they forget the heart of the gospel.  

They become more concerned with maintaining order than making disciples. They choose law over life, system over souls. 

Are there areas where you've become more concerned with rules than relationships? Ask God to give you His heart for people who are different from you. 

Prayer:

Father, soften my heart toward those who are hurting and broken. Don't let me become so comfortable in my faith that I lose compassion for others. Help me feel what You feel when I encounter human need. Give me courage to act with love, even when it disrupts my comfort. In Jesus' name, Amen.