Mark 3:1-6 Healing a man with a paralyzed hand
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: January 6, 2018 Mark 3:1-6
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Jesus went into the synagogue again, and a man with a paralyzed hand was there. The people watched Jesus closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, intending to accuse him of doing something wrong. He told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Come forward.” Then he asked them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on Sabbath days, to save a life or to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Jesus looked around at them in anger, deeply hurt because of their hard hearts. Then he told the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man held it out, and his hand was restored to health. Immediately the Pharisees and Herodians went out and began to plot how to kill him.
(Understanding the Passage) F. F. Bruce’s commentary suggests that this was a direct result of Jesus’ comment in Mark 2:28. “Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The commentary says “Jesus’ statement of 2:28 suggested to the Pharisees that His infringements of the Sabbath regulations which had been imposed by the elders on the Law of Moses were being undertaken deliberately, which inference they decided now to put to the test.” (page 1160)
(Revelation of God) By this time, Peter was beginning to know his Master. He saw Jesus’ anger, but He also saw the pain and hurt that Jesus was feeling. He knew now that Jesus loved all the people, not just the ones who followed Him but also the ones who rejected Him. Peter saw the pain and not just the anger. Thus, Mark writing about Peter’s memories records Jesus’ hurt. “Jesus looked around at them in anger, deeply hurt because of their hard hearts.”
(Application) I need to know those around me and see them clearly not just on the surface. Also, I need to see the pain in God’s anger in the OT.
(Revelation of God) How is it justified for me to apply the lessons of God that I see in this small section to all the OT? Because Jesus said that He had come to reveal the Father. He said that He and the Father are one. At the last supper Jesus said, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?” Jesus asked him. “The person who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (Joh 14:9). In addition, on numerous occasions Jesus identified Himself as the I AM of the OT. Thus, what we see in Jesus in the NT can be applied to God in the OT also.
(Application) It was Sabbath, so Jesus went to the synagogue. He knew there would be hypocrites there, but He also knew there would be people seeking God there. He knew that it would be a stressful trap and that He would get angry at some of the people there, but He went anyway because He knew that He was needed there to guide the ones who would listen to the right path. There are those who get offended and stressed out by people in the church, so they stay home. My reasons in the past were a little different. I was stressed by the drive and did not receive enough strength at church to overcome the stress of the drive. That was because I was not getting my strength through daily time with Jesus, so I was starved. The point here is stress because of church and the people in church. However, Jesus sets us an example. There are people at church who need us. We go for them even if there are others who will give us problems.
(Understanding the Passage) The man with a paralyzed hand must have been the only person with such an obvious affliction present at the synagogue. Was he a regular or did he go on the off-chance that Jesus would heal him? Was he planted there as bait for a trap? (Hey, he could have been one of the Pharisees’ father-in-law!) What did the old man think as he sat there. Did he have hope because he had heard of the other miracles? Was he cynical thinking that there was no way that he would be healed? Was he confident in Jesus? Was he a mixture of hope, cynicism, defeat, and fear? Or had he not thought about healing at all, so he had not expectations?
In any case, the people (those who were trying to find something bad in Jesus) knew that the man would be difficult for the great Healer to resist. Even though they did not KNOW Jesus, they knew that He loved to heal hurts. They could not understand Him, but they could predict His actions. Why is it that some of us who claim to love Jesus cannot seem to predict what He wants? We give unrealistic motives and actions to Him in our daily lives and when we are studying the Bible. When we KNOW Jesus, certain Bible passages become much clearer. In addition, the choices we should make in any given situation become clearer.
Before healing the man, Jesus makes it clear that while the Sabbath is a day of rest, it is also a day to do good acts for others. It is a day to improve other people’s lives and help them. It is not just a day to withdraw to our own little world.
(Application) At the end of the passage, we find out that the “people” were a mix of Pharisees and Herodians. They were angry that Jesus thwarted them with His words so that they could not accuse Him before the others attending. Thus, they got together later to plot against Him. Thus, in the church of Jesus’ day, people who claimed to be followers of God looked with malice upon another follower of God. When they could not lower that follower’s standing in the church service itself, they met together privately to complain and plot to hurt the other follower. Unfortunately, church members today tend to do the same against other believers. As church members, we should never get together to plot against someone secretly. We should be able to answer from God’s word any problems put forward by other members, but plotting is out. That sounds reasonable until something happens like when someone comes into the church and starts diluting the gospel or doing something else that offends one portion of the members. Then, the other members, who may be perfectly correct in their offense at the dilution of the gospel, start gossiping and complaining. This then leads to them thinking that they must DO SOMETHING about this other person which leads to trying to refute him/her in church or small groups and when this does not succeed, plotting against that person secretly.
(Application and Prayer) The message for me is that I have been on the edge of plotting because of an experience that I had. I have been in the first stages of offending, complaining, and refuting to my friend. I ask forgiveness for that gossiping. In that, I broke the rule that Paul set down in Titus. “Likewise, older women are to show their reverence for God by their behavior. They are not to be gossips or addicted to alcohol, but to be examples of goodness.” (Tit 2:3). I did not become a gossip to the whole church, but my motivation for complaining to my friend was not pure. The action to take in those situations is to look to God, not man, pray that the Holy Spirit will change hearts and minds, trust God to take care of it, and be ready to answer if God calls on one to refute the doctrine as He did Paul and Barnabas in the circumcision issue in Acts.
(Prayer) I pray to know when to follow established Sabbath procedures and when to ignore the procedures in order to keep the Sabbath in spirit. I pray to work with the other church members in love and guide them to loving each other. I pray that I will not be one of the people leading other people away from You. I pray that I will always lead people to you.