Again He entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. Mark 3:1-2
The 'they' being the Pharisees and perhaps even the Herodians(v6) were looking for a way to accuse Jesus of false religion. See, the Messiah had to be perfect, and was to be blameless, but if they could find fault in Him, then Jesus could not be the Messiah. But our Lord is no fool, and 'clever' is far to simple a word to describe his wits.
And He saith unto the man which had the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. Mark 3:3-4
They were arrogant, and they were proud, therefore they remained silent. For had they been humble and good at heart they wouldn't have been concerned with loosing face. But as it were, their pride kept them from answering the simple question. They would have lost face, they would look like fools, they would have to had humbled themselves to the Lordship of Christ, but they would have then repented and they would have been saved... but they didn't, instead...
And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him. Mark 3:6
Why were they angry to the extent of killing someone? Because Jesus revealed their root sin, pride. Think of them as pastors at their own church, and Jesus shows the whole congregation that they are phonies, well spoken hypocrites. They were ticked off and ready for His blood, because He told the truth, as only He knows it to be.
Application:
"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. Jeremiah 17:9-10
God sees the heart of man, and He hates the sin within it. Adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, idolatry, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, poverty, rape, divorce, child abuse, starvation, death! These are not things from God! Our disobedience and hate for God has brought such things into the world, and it breaks His heart. God is at war against the brokenness of our generation, either we are for Him or we are against Him. There is no middle ground. Any good we do is filthy rags to Him, it will never be good enough. Jesus is our only hope, apart from Him we are lost, apart from trusting Him we are His enemies, apart from dropping our pride and following Him, we remain dead men. Yet He remains gracious, and waits patiently, giving people time to repent and be saved.
The question, however, remains; Are you willing to follow Him, and be saved?
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