Bad Silence

In a world of incessant noise, silence can often be a safe haven against the chaotic backdrop of life.  Ask any young parent and they'll probably tell you silence is golden.  I remember those days when the kids were young and noisy.  Sometimes the bathroom was the only place you could go to hear yourself think.  And if silence can turn our attention to God, then even better! 

In Mark chapter 3, however, silence was a bad thing.  Jesus had gone into the synagogue on the Sabbath and it says a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Not only that, some Pharisees who were out to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing were there as well.  So they watched Him closely to see what He would do about the crippled man.  Of course, Jesus knew what they were thinking.  So He approached the issue head on.  Mark 3:3-4 reads, "Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, 'Stand up in front of everyone.'" Then Jesus asked them, 'Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?'" And it says, "But they remained silent."

The Pharisees were so beholden to their man-made rules and regulations, which they had applied to Sabbath activities, they couldn't answer Jesus' simple question of what was right to do - good or evil?  Notice there was no middle ground in Jesus' question.  There was no neutral answer.  What that tells us or them is that, in this situation, not doing good is doing evil.  If one has the opportunity to do good (i.e., heal the man), to not do it is to do evil.  Sadly, the Pharisees knew that if they answered Jesus' question honestly, they would be incriminating themselves because they would be going against their own man-made rules.  So, in their religious legalism, they remained silent.

In verse 5, it says, "He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored." Their stubborn hearts made Jesus angry.  Because of their rules, these religious leaders could not or would not acknowledge that helping this man was the right thing to do.  Then in God's love and power, Jesus heals the man and his shriveled hand.  In this instance, silence was bad because it was resistance to what is good.  Let us then be people who follow Jesus, who can say doing good is the right thing to do, and never let man-made rules keep us from blessing another.

Pastor Darren