Man's Law and the Father's Heart

Luke 6:9, And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy?

*See Luke 6:6-11 for the full story about Christ's healing of the man with the withered hand.*

From Luke 5:33-39 through the first eleven verses of chapter six, Jesus seemed to make it a point to show observers that man’s law meant nothing when it contradicted the good that God desired to come from His law. This story of the man with the withered hand is a case in point.

The Pharisees had become so consumed with their own stipulations they neglected to do the good to others God demands from His people. Instead, they actually schemed for the death of Jesus who had done nothing but work kindness and righteousness––so far had they slipped from conformity to the will of God.

I love that in verse eleven Luke mentions how furious the religious leaders were with Christ’s act of compassion that broke their religious mandates while Mark 3:5 records Christ’s grief and anger at the Pharisees hardheartedness and despising of the mercy God required of men. Such different standards each set for the other, yet both were angry, one group over a breach in the dictates of man and the other over a violation of the desires of the Father’s heart!