The Commands of Christ, Part Twenty-Three

The story where this command is shared is a pretty well-known story. Pharisees were challenging Christ. Right after Jesus proclaims, “For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:8, NASB 2020) he goes to the local synagogue. Here, he is asked if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. It’s a trap, Jesus knows it’s a trap and in verses 11 through 12 Christ explains that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then, in Matthew 12:13, Jesus looks at the man with the withered hand:

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.

Now, it’s pretty common knowledge that Jesus does some big miracles and it’s easy to question why what some might consider to be a minor miracle gets included in a Bible study series about the commands of Christ. We all have a part of ourselves that we look at the way this man must have looked at his withered hand.

In Matthew 9:2-7, there is a similar story where Jesus heals a paralyzed man.

And they brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.” And he got up and went home.

You may also be familiar with a similar story in John from John 5. Let’s look at verses 6 through 9.

Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, said to him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

One way to look at each of these stories is to view them with awe and wonder at the amazing healing power of Christ. And that wouldn’t be an incorrect way to look at them! I’m going to ask you to look at them a different way, however: from the perspective of the one who was healed. We have a man with a withered hand who must have cursed its uselessness. We have a man whose sin had left him paralyzed. Lastly, we have a man that, even though he was at a place known for its healing waters, could never reach them in time and was full of despair.

Each of these men could have opted out of their healing. The two that were paralyzed could have, from their lack of faith, stayed lying down. They could have believed the reality of their own situation over the power of Christ to heal them and stayed where they were. The man with the withered hand could have made the choice to not stretch out his hand for fear of what the synagogue leaders might do to him for proving Christ’s power. Each of them had to make a choice to believe that they had been healed.

Healing wasn’t exactly a common thing. There weren’t people set up on every corner offering healing. It was a big deal. But each of these three men had to make a choice, and so do we. So, let me ask you this: have you gotten up? Have you stretched out your hand? Are you still lying on your mat in despair. Are you still keeping your shriveled hand hidden from onlookers out of fear of what they might say if they see it healed? Do you believe that Christ can and wants to heal you?

None of these three stories contain anything to imply the person receiving the healing deserved it. None of them are asked to do something prior to receiving their healing. They are each, however, given a command once the healing occurs. They are told to take an action they couldn’t have before. When God heals us, whether from something physical, something emotional, or something spiritual; we show that we believe we are healed by standing up, by stretching out our hand.

Maybe you are waiting on healing. If you are, do you believe that it is coming? Maybe you are waiting on healing, but are you listening to the voice from God telling you to take an action that would only be possible if you were healed? There’s faith in waiting, that’s true, but there is obedience in showing others how God has healed us. God’s healing doesn’t always look the way we might expect. His ways are not our ways, after all, but if you’re praying for healing and you feel God is asking you to do something you can only do if He has healed you, stop waiting and start acting.

The paralyzed were healed the moment they believed Christ had healed them. The man with the hand was healed the moment he believed Christ had healed him. The paralyzed had to get up and walk to experience the fullness of their healing. The man with the withered hand had to stretch it out. So, if you’ve been waiting and you feel God asking you to: stretch out your hand.