But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. (Luke 6:8-10)This healing by Jesus taught key lessons to his followers along with naysayers who questioned his authority as God's representative.
Here is the context of this event from the Book of Luke:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. (Luke 6:7-10)
Why were they trying to trip Jesus up?
The Pharisees and the Jewish teachers were envious of Jesus, and thus were trying to usurp his authority by criticizing him.The Jewish teachers and authorities were trying to find fault in Jesus' practices and teachings because Jesus was teaching the pure meaning of the doctrines passed down through the lineage of teachers often characterized as "prophets." These teachers, which included Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Eli, Samuel, David, Solomon, Job, John the Baptist, and many others in between, taught the pure form of devotion and worship of God - love for God.
What was Moses' and Jesus' most important teaching?
Jesus said, quite simply, when these same Jewish teachers asked Jesus what was the most important of Moses' commandments. To this Jesus said:"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'" (Luke 10:27)And this is precisely what Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:5 to his own students. But are we sure that Moses' teachings emphasized love of God? Consider these other statements of Moses:
"Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, His decrees, His laws and His commands always." (Deut. 11:1)
"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 11:13)
"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him" (Deut. 11:22)
"because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today--to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways" (Deut 19:9)
"For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you" (Deut 30:16)
"and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life" (Deut 30:20)Does this not provide clear evidence that this was Moses' central message?
If this isn't enough, we can also learn this was Moses' central message from Moses' most celebrated and devoted student, Joshua. Joshua also clarified Moses' most important teachings:
"But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Joshua 22:5)
"So be very careful to love the LORD your God." (Joshua 23:11)We can see from these verses that while Moses, representing God, certainly laid down some rules to help govern the society, these were not the thrust of his teachings. His teachings were to give our hearts and our lives - our love - to the Supreme Being.
How do we come to love God?
Consider what it means to love someone to the extent mentioned in the verses above. To love someone, we have to know them, yes? We cannot love someone we do not know. Therefore, we must first come to know God.How do we come to know someone? The first way is to spend some time with that person. But how do we get close enough to someone so great as the Supreme Being? We can also rephrase this: How come to can we see God?
We can only see God if He reveals Himself to us.
Many challenge God by saying, "if God exists, why can't I see Him?" But what we do not realize is that we cannot see God because God does not want us to see Him.
Why not?
Because we do not want to see God. We want to be away from God. When we want to be away from God, the Supreme Being - being the kindest and most loving person - will take away our ability to see Him. He does this by giving us a physical body to occupy, which presents us with an illusion that we are this physical body.
God also set up the senses so they are limited. The combination of us identifying ourselves with these physical bodies together with the senses not being able to see Him give us the illusion that we are away from Him.
All this was intended to ultimately give us the choice to love God or not. The choice to love others or not. This world allows us the greatest form of freedom of choice. That is due to not only having the choice, but having the reality of His omnipresence hidden from our current view.
All this was intended to ultimately give us the choice to love God or not. The choice to love others or not. This world allows us the greatest form of freedom of choice. That is due to not only having the choice, but having the reality of His omnipresence hidden from our current view.
This is the characteristic of the most perfect, loving Person - He does not force Himself upon us. If we want to be away from Him, He lets us go.
But because since He is omnipresent and the Supreme Being, the only way we can really be away from Him is if He puts us in the illusion that we are away from Him.
This is where we are now: In an illusion that we are these temporary physical bodies, and we cannot see God.
There is only one way to change this situation: If we change our hearts. We have to want to be with Him. We have to want to see Him. Then, and only then, will we begin to see Him, and then and only then will we learn more about Him and come to love Him.
But because since He is omnipresent and the Supreme Being, the only way we can really be away from Him is if He puts us in the illusion that we are away from Him.
This is where we are now: In an illusion that we are these temporary physical bodies, and we cannot see God.
There is only one way to change this situation: If we change our hearts. We have to want to be with Him. We have to want to see Him. Then, and only then, will we begin to see Him, and then and only then will we learn more about Him and come to love Him.
Why does this require a change of heart?
Because we are self-centered at the moment. In order to want to love God, we have to reject our self-centered consciousness. Loving God requires wanting to do God's will according to Jesus' teachings.Just consider what a man does when he wants to get closer to a woman. He finds out what she wants, and then he does it. Because most women like flowers, the man will bring the woman some flowers on their first date. This opens the doorway for the woman to reveal herself to the man - so they can get to know each other.
The man will also find out what pleases the woman in other ways. Does she like certain types of restaurants, or going for a hike perhaps? Whatever she will want to do, the man will do that, all in order to get her to open up to him, so he can get to know her.
It is not much different with regard to God. If we really want to get to know the Supreme Being, the first thing we will do is find out what He likes. What pleases Him. Then we would do those things.
And God's representatives such as Jesus and Moses tell us what pleases the Supreme Being. They tell us that praying to God, thinking about Him, speaking about Him, praising His Holy Names, and living our lives simply and for His benefit pleases Him.
Why do these activities please Him?
Because these activities increase our focus upon Him, and He begins to reveal Himself to us, which increases our love for Him (because He is so beautiful and perfect). And as our love increases for God, we become happy. We become fulfilled when we are loving our Soul Mate, God.This is the amazing thing about the Supreme Being: He does not need us to pray to Him. He does not need us to worship Him. He is self-sufficient. He does not need us at all.
But He loves us. He wants us to be happy. And the only way we will be happy is if we return to our natural position as His loving caregivers.
This is why we all spend so much of our time here in the physical world looking for love. We're all looking for someone to love and someone who will love us for who we really are - not for how much money we have or how famous we are. Or how good-looking our body is, or whatever.
This is the Supreme Being. He loves us for who we really are. He cares for us no matter how badly we goof up. He wants us to be happy regardless of how badly we treat ourselves and others.
It all starts with a simple desire. If we pray or even think sincerely: "God please let me come to know You and learn to love You," the Supreme Being will begin the gradual process of opening Himself up to us.
Yes, the process is gradual, because a real change of heart typically comes gradually. Rarely can a person immediately change from being self-centered to being God-centered. It comes in increments. The Supreme Being begins to stage lessons that occur within our physical lives that begin to teach us about Him.
For those who become serious, He will direct towards one of His representatives, who can introduce us to Him personally. God sends His representatives to the earth to teach about Him in every generation. And these representatives are only known to those who sincerely want to come to know and love the Supreme Being.
This is what Jesus was doing. He was introducing His serious followers to the Supreme Being, by teaching them. And with his life he was illustrating his dedication to God. This was accomplished through a variety of means, one of which was with healing the bodies of some.
But healing was not Jesus' purpose. Otherwise, he would have become a doctor and set up hospitals. Instead, Jesus' focus was his teachings. His sermons. His healings were done typically to illustrate his potency - his authority - granted by the Supreme Being.
In this case, we can see that Jesus specifically healed this man's hands to illustrate to the Jewish teachers that they were missing the core principles of Moses' teachings. They were focused on the external rules and rituals while missing the purpose and intent of Moses' teachings.
Living a regulated life is extremely helpful for helping us with a change of heart. But it is not the core purpose. The core purpose is to change from selfish consciousness to a consciousness of caring about and living for the Supreme Being.