REACHING

Mark 3:1-6// The Moment when a man with a withered hand reached out and was healed. I closed my eyes and imagined it and this is what I saw. ✨

And so the man with the withered hand reached out, exposing the root of what crippled him. Revealing his full weakness, his insecurity placed into the spotlight. It was this that had put him on the sidelines his entire life- incapable and unusable. Worthless. And here, before the Son of God, in the midst of those who had the greater authority in those days; he was asked to show not what he could do but what he couldn't. He was asked to display his weakness, fully. That is what Jesus asked for, he didn't want the healthy hand, he wanted the broken. His intentions weren't to congratulate the man on what he could do by shaking his hands. He wanted to heal. He wanted to restore. It was just a withered hand but in that moment of full exposure that man was given life again. It's not that he never had a purpose or wasn't fully useful before, but now he could live it out. He was free to work, lift, hold. The limitations were off. He was a beggar no longer. This man they called Jesus- in a single moment wrecked what this man had been told his entire life by multitudes. In a single moment invalidating the label, "crippled man", invalidating what made him useless, without purpose, what made him unwanted, what made him not good enough, unworthy. In a single moment with a single motion, the Truth crashed through all of that. What the man had become so skilled at hiding was all Jesus wanted to see. All he wanted to hold. All he wanted to change.
Yet what if the man had given Jesus the other hand instead? Like a child showing his father what he is proud of? Or like a grown man indignant that he is capable despite his disabilities? And that his weakness does not define him. It may be so, but Jesus wouldn't have wanted it. He didn't want the mans abilities, he wanted the brokenness. He didn't want it exposed to prove it existed. He wanted to heal it. But if that man had never extended his withered hand, would he have been healed? Even now, so often Jesus asks us for our hand, and we give him the one that is well- rather than what is withered. Why do we shy away from bringing what needs healing to the healer?
In all three accounts, the man with the withered hand didn't hesitate. He reached out. Jesus didn't hesitate either. He reached out too. The man had to have known despite it all that Jesus didn't want to ridicule where he fell short but rather wanted to fill the gap.  He had to have known who this Jesus really was. Otherwise who in their right mind would place their insecurity in the spotlight? One that had already been on display his entire life? In front of the crowd, the authorities, the popular ones? We would all be too afraid, too ashamed. UNLESS we knew too. Unless we knew who this Jesus really was, really is. Or else I don't think we would hesitate for a moment. Just like the man with the withered hand.