Day 6 - Do you need to get sick to get healthy?
Mark 3:1-12
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
He 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. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Bern Leckie writes:
How can something good like healing make people so uncomfortable? What was it about Jesus or what he was doing that made religious leaders not just disagree or ignore him, but plot to kill him?
Before dismissing these leaders as rubbish or ignorable, look at how these people made Jesus feel, and why. Mark points to their “stubborn hearts” which produced “anger” in Jesus. Did that mean Jesus wanted to dismiss them? Or that he loved them deeply, and wanted them to see and join in what God was doing which was going to bring about change – in the world, but first in them?
Lots of people wanted to be changed because they knew they were ill. What would encourage me to change when I don’t think I need or want to? Maybe Jesus wants to show us how we can live differently, perhaps more healthily, today so we don’t need to get sick. Why not ask him?