"Practically Divine" - Week 2

Please read Mark 3:1-6

In this story, Jesus healed the man with the withered hand in the temple and on the Sabbath. Have you ever noticed how often Jesus healed on a Sabbath throughout the Gospels. It’s almost like He was making a point.

I’m following a “Bible in a Year” plan through a podcast with Father Mike, a Catholic priest. His reading and commentary has been so meaningful for me. Throughout the year, Father Mike interrupts our normal reading with Messianic checkpoints. During the weeks leading up to Easter, we read through John. Last week, we covered the book of Mark. I had no idea we’d be doing that when I chose Mark for our study. I! Love! God!!

Father Mike took a significant amount of time during Mark 3 to talk about the fact that Jesus was intentional with healing on the Sabbath, because He wanted to show the religious that He was Lord over all of the regulation they held so dear. If we aren’t careful, we will take the things God gave us for our help and guidance and try to make it Lord. That will never work.

Today, I’ve noticed something even more special about this passage as it relates to the “practically divine.”

I am imagining the man was trying NOT to make a spectacle of himself. My guess is that he was quietly trying to mind his own business when the Pharisees decided to test Jesus with the one thing he wanted to hide. Jesus wasn’t turned off by his deformity or their hardened hearts. BUT, He was grieved, and He did choose to demonstrate compassion.

Jesus went straight to the man and asked him to stretch out his hand, and I can hear the poor guy saying….

What?

Stretch out this ugly, messed-up, mangled thing that I’ve been trying to hide?

You want me to lay it out “in broad daylight?”

Absolutely! Jesus wanted to shame uncovered in broad daylight, because that’s the only way it’s healed.

Maybe your story is similar to Becca’s and you identify completely with all that she’s shared. If so, I am terribly sorry. I am praying that God has used this chapter to further the healing process in your own heart.

Possibly, your story is nothing like Becca’s story, but you have your own story of shame and humiliation that still haunts a little today.

Wherever you find yourself today, I know this to be true…. Not a single one of us is getting out of this life without significant trauma. And, while our natural tendency is to want to hide it, stuff it, or run away from it, I believe Jesus is always asking us to stretch it out before Him. He can’t heal what we won’t let him have.

Let’s give Him the shame today. Stretch it out and lay it down. You don’t need to carry it anymore.

Like Becca said (page 10), “What was once a feeling of being lost and scared was now being transformed into something else.”

That’s what God does. He transforms. I pray there are MANY transformation stories born out of this summer book study.

**Tomorrow, we will be in Mark 4. If you want to look for more practically divine in chapter 3, you can finish reading it now.

Jesus, I thank you that You save us daily. We were saved once and for all to eternal life. But, every single day, I need to be saved from myself, my past, my fears, and my sin. I’m so thankful You never get tired of rescuing and restoring us. Be with all of my sisters and me. Transformation is our goal, and we know that will include struggles. We want to hand them over to you today! Give us the courage to follow through. Amen.