Jesus Heals a Man with a Shriveled Hand – Stubborn Heart (Mark 3:1-6)

Jesus Heals a Man with a Shriveled Hand – Stubborn Heart

 

Mark 3:1-6

 

Simply speaking, the Bible contains stories about how God solves human problems. John 3:16, which we often call the summary of the Bible, is one of the representative examples, saying: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” There are countless problems that people are suffering. They may be physical problems such as diseases, spiritual problems, such as sins and demon possession, economic problems such as poverty, social problems such as injustice, national problems like wars, natural problems such as flood and drought, or eternal issues such as death and judgment. It seems that we live in the torrent of problems. Nevertheless, God solve all these problems quite easily. God’s power far exceeds the difficulty of such troubles. In any part of the Bible, we don’t see “a problem too difficult to be handled by God.”

 

In today’s passage, however, we see a somewhat different situation. Jesus was faced with a problem, which was not easy at all. What is the problem? In fact, this problem is “the central issue” throughout the Bible. We can say that every incident recorded in the Bible happened around this one problem. That is, the long history from the beginning to the end of the Bible is a tedious and wearing wrestling with this one problem. As that much, this is an important and intractable issue, even to God. What is the problem? It is people’s stubborn heart. The first part of Mark 3:5 of today’s passage says, “He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” Some people’s stubborn hearts made Jesus angry and deeply distressed.

 

One day, which was the Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue, and there was a man with a shriveled hand. A hand is shriveled when its growth is abnormal. The man’s shriveled hand was not only disabled functionally, but also awful in appearance. How many things do we do with our hands? But this man had to do all these things with only one hand while others did with two. For him, it was uneasy to wash the face, and quite difficult to hammer a nail. It was almost impossible to put on a necktie, and in a fight, he could hit only once when the opposite hit him twice. When meeting others, he could not express his gladness by holding out his hand. With such a poor hand, how much more had his soul been withered and wretched? But, now, a light of hope arose to him. Jesus came to him. Jesus drove out demons out of a demon-possessed man, healed a leper of leprosy, and raised a paralytic. Jesus declared forgiveness to sinners, and ate and drank with them joyfully. Day and night, the Lord served people and taught them the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the light of goodness, light of healing, light of life, light of righteousness, and light of power. Whoever enters into the light is set free from all of his/her life problems. The Lord is good and mighty. In this Jesus, even the dead have a hope.

 

God sent Jesus to the world and shed such a powerful light of salvation through him. People, who had been tortured by diseases, harassed by demons, oppressed by the heavy burden of sins, and driven by the fear of death, now should welcome the Lord with great joy and happiness. Surprisingly, however, there were some people who rejected and even resist Jesus’ good works. They were stubborn in heart. In order to get a reason to accuse Jesus, they watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal the poor man on the Sabbath. Their hearts were so stubborn. A stubborn heart is a heart that does not listen, does not learn, and does not make efforts to understand, and rather, determines to do evil willfully and purposefully. In order to turn their hearts, Jesus asked, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” This question is not complicated at all. It is a lamp of truth that exposes and corrects their crooked hearts. However, they kept silent. Although their wickedness was so obvious, they persisted in the wickedness. According to Verse 6, going worse, they went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Their stubborn hearts were harder than flint. And their stubbornness was invincible even to Jesus.

 

For those who develop new medicine, one of the biggest challenges is making the drug reach the affected part in the body and produce its efficacy. However good a drug is, if the body does not have a device to receive it, the drug will be discharged without doing anything good for the body. Therefore, as much as a drug is important, the receptor in the body side is also crucial for taking the drug. only then, the drug can produce the desired effect. In this sense, “a stubborn heart” is a fatal problem. “A stubborn heart” means that God cannot do anything for the person. Therefore, “a stubborn heart” is the most serious disease and the most fundamental sin.

 

Why do people harden their hearts? “A stubborn heart” does not necessarily mean an intentional crookedness. For example, Mark 6:52 says, “For they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” This was when Jesus’ disciples were caught in the middle of storm and they feared to death out of their unbelief. Here, the word “hardened” is the same as “stubborn” in today’s passage. What hardened the disciples’ hearts were fear and unbelieving. In this way, there are many elements resulting in people’s stubborn hearts. The most prominent one among them is probably “deceitfulness of sin.” With regard to this, Hebrew 3:13 says, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” The temptation of sin deceives people and hardens their hearts. As a result, people do not feel sin as sin. This was also the case for those in today’s passage. With the stubborn hearts, they did not feel any sympathy with the poor man with a shriveled hand, and did not revere the Lord of Truth and Love. Their hearts were full of a merciless and murderous spirit. How painful would it be to live with such a heart? Still they did not feel any pain, and their uncontrollable hearts grew even more vicious.

 

The Bible describes “stubborn heart” in various ways. It is called “calloused heart” in Isaiah 6:10, “callous and unfeeling heart” in 119:70, and “heart of stone” in Ezekiel 36:26. Even Zechariah 7:12 says, “They made their hearts as hard as flint.” These ｅxpressions suggest that people’s hardened hearts are so dull and senseless like a flint stone that there is no hope of being soft. If the heart, which should feel, move, and mourn, is as hard as a flint stone, it is really a serious problem. Jesus had pity on them and gave them a challenging but graceful word. However, they were like an immovable mountain. Their hearts did not move even an inch. Rather they became harder.

 

There is a folk tale that all of us are familiar with. It is about a disobedient green frog. The son frog never listened to his mom, and always did the exact opposite of the mother’s saying. Because of the son’s disobedience, the mom frog’s heart was broken and at last she was dying of sickness. Not trusting the son who had always gone in the opposite direction, the mother gave him her last word. “Dear son, if I die, bury me by the river, not in the mountain.” She said so because the son would disobey her and bury her body in the mountain. Contrary to her expectation, however, the green frog, seeing his mother’s death, realized how many sins he had committed against his mom. Then he repented his past life, and for the first time in his life, he obeyed the mom’s word, burying her by the river. What moved the green frog’s stubborn heart? It was mother’s death. Mother’s death was the consequence of the son frog’s stubborn heart. Through the mother’s death, the green frog awoke from the deceitfulness of sin, and saw the reality of sin. Now he found what he had done until now. His heart became sensible. With the restored sense of his heart, the frog regretted his wrongdoings, and missed his mom and her love with many tearful thanks. I think about the green frog’s life afterwards. Now, when repeating his past sins, he might recall the mom’s death caused by his disobedience and remember the mother’s earnest sayings to him. Then he might stop the sins, and turn away from his past life. Although mother died, she rose again in the son frog’s heart. Although the mother left her son in body, she returned into the son’s heart. In the course, the son became a sincere and truthful frog.

 

The mother’s death is “Jesus’ cross.” Our stubborn hearts defeated Jesus. And we crucified the Lord on the cross. Jesus’ cross reveals the reality of our stubborn and sinful hearts. By doing so, Jesus’ cross breaks our flint-like heart, and makes it soft. When our hearts are hardened and dulled by the deceitfulness of sins, and lose their sense by our unbelief and fear, it is only Jesus’ cross that can soften the hearts and restore their sense. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the world that can tender a stubborn heart. Rather, the world stupefies our hearts through powerful deceptions so that we cannot see our sinfulness. It keeps telling a lie, saying “It’s OK! It’s OK!” Living in this world, we must keep looking at the cross on which the Lord was crucified. It is because only Jesus’ cross is the reality of my sins and all the others are illusions. Thanks to Jesus, now we can see the naked face of our sins. Jesus’ cross has the power to break our flint-like heart and to give us a “tender heart” before God. I pray that the Lord may bless each of us with this blessing. I pray that we may have a new heart, a tender heart through Jesus’ cross.