Good morning. Of course I will be praying for you and your family. Jesus then goes into the synagogue. There is a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees wanted to know, “is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” This was so that they could accuse Him. After all this was a much worse breaking of the Sabbath than the disciples picking and eating grain. Jesus asks them, “what man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out? How much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” This would be akin to today saying that you could not get healed on Sunday. Today most Christians think that that is the only day you can get healed; and of course it must be done in church. Jesus tells the man to stretch out his hand, and he does. If you think about it, that took faith on the part of the man. He did not have time to talk himself out of it by thinking what would it look like if he tried to and nothing happened. Because he had faith in Jesus, his hand was restored to normal. Of course the Pharisees were happy that the man was healed – not. It just made them madder than a wet hen. They talked it over about how they might destroy Jesus. He was making them and all of their rules look bad. After all the people would think “how could the man be healed if it were not of God?” Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking, and so He left. Many followed Him, and He healed them all. That did not happen earlier in Matthew when Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. They waited until sundown – after the Sabbath was over. This put God’s seal of approval upon Jesus healing on the Sabbath. God has a way of countermanding man's sets of rules. Father thank You that the reader’s family does not have to wait till Sunday to be healed. They can be healed right now!

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