GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 3:3
Do Good Even When It Hurts
An aphorism holds that “The good that you do doesn’t always do you good.” During World War II, Oskar Schindler saved over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories, but he lost his fortune and lived in financial hardship after the war. Florence Nightingale improved nursing and medical care during the Crimean war, but her demanding work ethic caused her to suffer from chronic illness and exhaustion for much of her life.
St. Mark said that Jesus was in a synagogue on the Sabbath and there was a man in the assembly with a withered hand. St. Matthew said that his critics were looking for an occasion to persecute him, so they asked Jesus if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. (Matt. 12:10) St. Luke said Jesus knew the design behind their question. (Luke 6:8) In this hostile atmosphere, “And he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand in the midst.’” (Mark 3:3)
Putting the three gospel writers together, there was a conversation between Jesus and some of the critics in the congregation. The distinguished visitors to the synagogue, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law (Luke 6:7), would likely have occupied the spaces in front of the audience. They would have been obvious in their robes and carefully trimmed beards. They were meticulous about their observances of the Sabbath laws. In this atmosphere Jesus called for the man to stand in the middle (the word used by Mark and Luke, usually translated as “midst”) of the gathering. Jesus faced the question whether to do good even if it would not do him good. Not an unusual dilemma—whether to do good even if it will not do one good.
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