On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled... He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. (Luke 6: 6 & 10, NIV)
As the Man walked, He noticed that the room was full with of white robes and blue-lined shawls encrusted with foreign jewels, all looking at Him as He carried the scrolls. He read what was due for the week, He spoke briefly about the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy, and He quietly looked at this man with a shriveled hand, who bowed his head while being pushed by a local Pharisee to come across Him. Nobody knows how the hand ended up this way; though he was ambidextrous, using the left for what could be done with the right was so declassé, as said by one of them. He could not eat or work or drink or chew, and he was too poor to ask for help —that is what another Pharisee said on a Sabbath. That would be work.
But the day of rest is only to rest from work, thought the Prophet, not to needlessly poison the lives of men and women with enormous litigations that could never be fulfilled. Eat this or drink that or worship only in these days —it will create a generation that will never celebrate freedom, always quivering in fear over failure and never living the life He wants them to live! Yes, he is crippled by a shriveled hand, but his heart also grew shriveled, battered and weathered and afraid.
Which is better to do on the Sabbath: to do good, or evil? To save lives, or destroy them?
And on that moment, the man was healed.