Daily Bible Reading 30th May 2026 // Luke 6:6-11
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 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 it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
The story recorded in these verses affords a very good illustration of what was said at the end of the previous Note about the blessings of the Sabbath. Our Lord's action in healing the man with the withered hand shows clearly that to take the opportunity to heal and bless men not only did not transgress the law of the Sabbath, but in fact fulfilled it, and made it what it was always: the divine intention that it should be. This is the point of Jesus' question in 9, and what He said also serves to expose the ugliness of the Pharisees' attitude. At the very moment Jesus was asking the man to stretch out his hand for healing, they were planning and plotting to trap and destroy Him, in their madness, rage and hatred. And Christ, comparing His own desire to deal with their murderous hate, said, 'Is it lawful... to save life or to destroy it?' Put like this, the terrifying 'badness' of these religious men stands out starkly and provides a grim warning of the dangers inherent in a legalism that takes over in men's hearts and minds. It is a terrible blasphemy against true and undefiled religion, and our Lord always challenged it in the severest possible terms. The strictest observance of Sabbath rules and regulations is all in vain if men's hearts secretly harbour unhallowed and bitter things. The truly damning thing about Pharisaism - then and now - is that it robs men ultimately of humanity. The man with the withered hand did not come into their thinking at all, far less their compassion. His need was obscured and eclipsed by their 'rules'.