3. The Man with the Withered Hand

We pass on a little further, and then it is another thing. It is not the disciples this time. When they were in question, He appeals to what David did when he was a rejected king; but now it is a poor son of want and woe in the synagogue. They watch Him. Is it not strange that the heart of man is against the grace of God? Anything rather than grace, than that the heart should open itself and let the grace of God flow in, The Lord knew their hearts; He knew what was in man. He then bids the man rise up and stand forth in the midst. What a wonderful moment’ The Lord in this scene, sorrow and sin and misery in it; and in the synagogue too, where what God was should be taught to His people, “I am Jehovah that healeth thee.”

They had no idea of who Jehovah was, no idea of the One whom Jehovah had sent; therefore, when the Lord puts the question which was simply, “Is it proper and right to do good, or to do evil?” they did not answer Him. He heals the man, and “they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.” Grace is working, and instead of welcoming it, “they were filled with madness,” and communed what they might do. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world made everything manifest. In the beginning of the gospel Simeon says, “That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Chapter 2:35) The Lord Jesus comes into this world, presenting grace in all the tenderness of man, in the perfection of a man, in such a way that in the next chapter a poor woman that was a sinner was allowed to wash His feet with her tears. That was Jesus in this world, the vessel of the grace of God here. In Luke He is not so much looked at as in John —the manifestation of what God is; the full development of the grace of the Father’s heart, beautiful as it is. But He is presented as a man, in such a way that we can be near to Him. As the hymn says—
“That Thou might’st with us be.”
So that a poor woman: could touch Him; that Levi could make a feast, and invite a number of poor sinners to come and sit down with Him; that He could wander with His disciples through the cornfields, while they plucked the ears of corn, and did eat. A heart touched with the want and woe all round, yet man’s heart thoroughly against Him. That is what was on earth; the whole thing is thus portrayed. The sabbath, besides being a sign between God and Israel, was also the sign of God’s rest in His own creation. He made everything very good, and He rested. He brought man into His rest. It was all broken up directly, we know; but He brought man in to enjoy it. The sabbath was a sign of the goodness of God. Genesis 2 tells us, that before there was a man to till the ground the Lord God caused everything to grow. It was God’s delight to prepare that place for the creature to be put into. The sabbath was expressive of His delight in what His own hands had done, yet to be realized in ‘the millennial sabbath. (Psalms 104:31) He thus presented Himself to His people of old as the Fountain and Source of all good, that man might come and enjoy what God is, and know what flows from God to His creature. The new creation in its fullness will be a scene where God Himself will fill every bit of His own creation— “God all in all.” Yet evil man turned Him out of His creation, and crucified the Lord of glory. There is not a time when we look for anything in ourselves, instead of drawing every spring of our life from Him, that we are not slighting our blessed Saviour.
The sabbath was the sign of all this to His people. What people were like Israel, whom God had taken to be His own inheritance? So He says, in Isaiah 58, “If thou turn away thy foot from doing thine own pleasure, and call the sabbath a delight.” Instead of a man doing his own work to satisfy himself, if he kept the sabbath the Lord says, “Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord... and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.” I know that is only earthly blessing; but what is it now, when I become a vessel of grace? There was this vessel of grace flowing out in this weary world, addressing itself to man’s heart in the most tender manner, so that any poor son of want and woe could understand it.
The Lord was born so poor in this world that there never was a poor man who could say, “I cannot go to the Lord, because He is above me;” that is, as to position in this world. Pride of heart does not like it to be so; but whatever want I have I can come to Him, and there is the heart that made itself the vessel of every woe. As it says, “Himself bare our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows.” That is what Jesus was in this world, and the heart of man would not have Him.