GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 6:10-11
10 He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Was this an act of the law, or of the gospel?
We’ve already talked about the purpose of the law. Let’s remind ourselves of the purpose of the gospel. In its primary sense, the gospel is that part of the word of God that applies to faith:
1. The gospel does not refer to good works (that is, anything man does) and does not call for or demand works of any kind (Ephesians 2:4).
2. The gospel calls only for faith (Romans 1:16-17).
3. The gospel does not condemn, but only assures us of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).
4. The gospel assures us of peace (Romans 10:15; Ephesians 6:15).
5. The gospel assures us of salvation (Ephesians 1:13).
Or as Martin Luther said, “The Gospel is such a doctrine of Word of God that does not demand our works or enjoin us to do something, but bids us simply to receive the offered grace of the remission of sins and eternal salvation and accept it as a present” (St. L. IX:803).
The invitation, “Stretch out your hand,” might be construed to be a work on the man’s part, but it isn’t. To stretch out his hand was something this man had not been able to do by his own power for a long time. This was an invitation to do what had been impossible, and would have been forever impossible, without the power of God.
When Jesus healed this man’s hand, it was a proclamation of the gospel to the man, and a demonstration of the gospel to the Pharisees. For the man, the healing assured him of God’s grace and salvation. Nothing was demanded of him. Jesus called him out into the middle of the group (verse 8), not as a good deed, but so that everyone would see what happened. And as we have seen, stretching out his hand was only possible through Christ. If he had not done it now, he would still have been healed. Doing the act, that is, stretching out his hand, only showed what was now possible through Christ. The miracle didn’t depend on the man or his deeds at all.
For the Pharisees, Jesus was demonstrating the gospel, calling only for faith and nothing else. But since they rejected him, it had the effect of the law, because they saw the miracle only from the point of view of the law. By rejecting Jesus’ words, they rejected the whole gospel. They turned away from the forgiveness offered by God and chose to seek their own salvation through their own deeds and accomplishments. But salvation is found in no one else: “for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The Pharisees began to discuss what they might do to Jesus from this point. It would take them two years, but the Lord’s rising popularity would keep their hatred ablaze until one final event which would turn their rage into blind murderous hatred: the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It’s clear from the account of that miracle in John’s gospel that their real fear was about the loss of their power over the people. “If we let him go on like this,” they would say, “everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48). They would plan to kill Jesus at some opportunity, and they even planned to kill Lazarus as well (John 12:10), “for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him” (12:11).
But that event and the tears Jesus shed at Lazarus’ tomb were still two years away. The Lord of the Sabbath still needed to preach the gospel to the Jews, since without the message of forgiveness, the miracles would have been signs without any meaning. The gospel had to be proclaimed, but Jesus did not intend to do all the preaching by himself. It was time to call other men to preach along with him, to send them all throughout Galilee and Judea to preach the good news throughout the kingdom of Israel. It was time to call the Twelve.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota