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Jesus: Healing A Shriveled Hand

      The next Sabbath event follows immediately after the previous one in all three gospels, but it seems to have no relation except thematically. It takes place on a different Sabbath at a different location, inside the synagogue. While he is teaching he encounters a man whose right hand is shriveled. The Pharisees and other teachers watch silently, wondering if Jesus will heal him. They obviously think that he should not do so on the Sabbath.

      Jesus, however, after having the man stand up in plain view of all, addressed a question to the teachers. "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" (Luke 6:9) The answer was obvious in everyone's mind, and is the basis for many of Jesus' Sabbath activities. Doing good on the Sabbath is not contrary to Torah, no matter what the other teachers thought. What matters is what God, the Author of Torah, thinks.

      Jesus healed the hand by speaking, an action that wasn't contrary to any Sabbath regulations. Here again Jesus kept the Torah perfectly. It is only the antagonism of the Pharisees that adds any sense of controversy at all.

Healing a Crippled Woman